Shanghai records two new locally transmitted cases

Two new COVID-19 locally transmitted cases were reported in Shanghai on Thursday, and health officials said that so far they have not discovered that the cases are related to the previous local infections.

The two cases, aged 74 and 44, are mother and daughter. The mother had lived outside Shanghai for two months before traveling to Shanghai accompanied by the daughter, who works in the municipality and lives in Pudong district, by train on Nov 18, the city's health officials said at a media briefing on Thursday.

The two patients said that they began feeling ill in late November and went to a fever clinic on Wednesday night. They both tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

Wu Jinglei, director of the Shanghai Municipal Health Commission, said they are both in stable condition and CDC workers are racing against time to implement epidemic control measures.

By 5 pm Thursday, CDC workers had traced down 146 close contacts, 344 secondary close contacts, and more than 14,200 relevant individuals. All the results of their nucleic acid tests showed negative.

Their residential neighborhood on Mudan Road in Pudong became a medium-level risk area for the virus' spread and will be locked down for 14 days.

Previously on Nov 25, three local COVID-19 cases were reported in Shanghai, and an asymptomatic case, a close contact of one of the confirmed cases, was reported on Saturday.

"As the COVID-19 pandemic is still at its high level in many parts of the world, Shanghai, the country's large port city and a gate to the world, has long been under heavy pressure of preventing the virus's spread from overseas," said Wu.

Health officials also encouraged residents to get the booster vaccine, which will play an important role in preventing pandemic spread.

By Wednesday, the number of COVID-19 vaccination in Shanghai had reached more than 41 million, covering 23 million people, and more than 21 million among them had accomplished two shots, Wu said.

"Since Nov 1, when the city began to provide the booster vaccine, nearly 2.98 million residents had been inoculated with the booster," he said.