Airport official: New COVID-19 cases not from passenger zones

The recent COVID-19 cases related to cargo workers at the Shanghai Pudong International Airport do not work in the passenger transport area nor the terminals, a senior executive from the airport said on Monday.

"The airport is operating in a safe and orderly manner with a string of epidemic prevention measures in place," said Zhou Junlong, vice-president of Shanghai Airport Authority, during a municipal press briefing.

Zhou added that the airport will step up measures to disinfect cargo, perform sample testing and protect its staff.

Five locally transmitted COVID-19 cases were reported in Shanghai between Friday and Sunday. Three of them are workers at a cargo station in Shanghai Pudong International Airport. The others are the wives of two of these workers.

Zhou said that imported cold-chain products arriving at the airport will be handled at designated areas, and relevant workers will live in designated accommodation to minimize the risk of virus spread.

Shanghai completed nucleic acid tests for 17,719 cargo workers at the Pudong airport last night. Presently, 11,544 of them have tested negative. The rest are still awaiting their reports.