Coronavirus: Shenzhen’s Delta cluster ‘highly likely’ linked to imported goods, authorities say

First person to test positive believed to have come into contact with contaminated item that arrived from overseas, according to health commission

With four cases found, mass testing is under way, some public venues have closed, and residents have been told not to leave city unless necessary

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A child gets tested for Covid-19 in Shenzhen’s Futian district on Sunday. Compulsory testing is under way in the city of 12.5 million. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 5:59pm, 10 Jan 2022Updated: 8:12pm, 10 Jan 2022

Health authorities in Shenzhen say a Covid-19 cluster in the southern Chinese city is “highly likely” to have come from a worker being exposed to contaminated goods that arrived from overseas.

Four locally acquired cases of the Delta variant have been found in the city since Friday, when a married couple tested positive during routine screening. A colleague of the woman was confirmed with the virus on Saturday, and another woman tested positive on Sunday and is being treated in hospital, the Shenzhen Health Commission said.

But it said an epidemiological investigation had found that the origin of the strain they have is not the same as other local cases elsewhere in China, including Hong Kong, or other imported cases found in Shenzhen recently.

The first person to test positive worked in the international supply chain and had come into contact with imported goods believed to have been contaminated with the virus, the health commission said. No further details were given.

The new infections are the first cases of community transmission reported in Shenzhen since an outbreak in May 2020.

Across China, 157 new Covid-19 cases were reported on Monday – 97 of them locally acquired, according to the National Health Commission.

Fifteen of the new infections were in Xian, the locked down northwestern city in Shaanxi that has been grappling with an outbreak since early December.

Coronavirus: Shenzhen’s Delta cluster ‘highly likely’ linked to imported goods, authorities say

First person to test positive believed to have come into contact with contaminated item that arrived from overseas, according to health commission With four cases found, mass testing is under way, some public venues have closed, and residents have been told not to leave city unless necessary

First person to test positive believed to have come into contact with contaminated item that arrived from overseas, according to health commission

With four cases found, mass testing is under way, some public venues have closed, and residents have been told not to leave city unless necessary