Shanghai reports 2 new local COVID-19 cases

Shanghai reported two local COVID-19 cases on Friday following two consecutive days of zero new case, the municipal government announced on Saturday morning.

The total of locally transmitted cases in this wave of infection is 18.

Both new cases were close contacts of confirmed cases reported on Jan 21. They had been placed under hotel quarantine on the same day, the Shanghai Municipal Health Commission said.

One new case is a resident in the downtown Huangpu district and is the spouse of a confirmed case reported on Jan 21, when the first cases in this wave of infection in the city were reported.

The other resides in north Shanghai's Baoshan district and is a family member of a previously confirmed case.

All individuals that had contact with the two new cases have been identified and placed under hotel quarantine.

Sun Xiaodong, deputy director of the Shanghai Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention, told Shanghai Television Station on Thursday all the cases reported did not go out of the virus transmission chains that had been mapped by the city's disease prevention and control work team.

"The new cases were already in our closed-loop management before they developed symptoms. There's a slight possibility that the epidemic in Shanghai this time will spread further," he said.