City tests 743,000 samples for COVID-19

A medical staff gets ready for work at Shenzhen No.3 People's Hospital. DT News

The city had collected a total of 743,000 samples to perform nucleic acid tests for COVID-19 in the past two weeks since Aug. 14, an official with Shenzhen Health Commission said at a news conference Friday.

Two asymptomatic COVID-19 cases were reported in the city Aug. 14. Both worked at the Hema Fresh Supermarket Shuibei outlet in the IBC Mall in Luohu District. They were found to be asymptomatic cases after one of their co-workers at the supermarket tested positive for COVID-19 in Shanwei City, Guangdong Province.

By Friday, no new positive COVID-19 cases had been found related to the Shanwei woman after three asymptomatic cases were confirmed Aug. 14 and 19, and the latest COVID-19 situation has been effectively controlled, said Luo Lexuan, chief of the city’s health commission, said.

All 21 outlets of Hema Fresh Supermarket across the city were closed Aug. 15, but they have been approved for the gradual reopening of business from Thursday, Li Zhong, director with the city’s market supervision bureau, said at the news conference.

At the moment, 20 outlets have reopened to customers. The IBC Mall is also preparing to reopen.

To further reduce risks, the city’s 3,458 air-conditioned warehouses have been put under registration-based administration, under which all products are required to be registered and tested.

As the new school year is scheduled to begin tomorrow, Sept. 1, Chen Qiuming, vice director with Shenzhen Municipal Education Bureau, advised 2,628 schools including kindergartens to take precautions and make preparations, though teachers and students do not have to wear masks on campuses.

“Since Aug. 15, schools had started daily health monitoring and all 204,000 teaching staff and 2.13 million students have declared their health condition through the health app,” said Chen.

Schools are required to take the strictest measures to implement COVID-19 prevention and control rules. Routine checks, disinfections, ventilation, sanitation and garbage classification measures should be reinforced to ensure normal operations of teaching and learning activities, according to Chen.

Shenzhen Municipal Market Supervision and Regulation Bureau will also conduct checks at schools and surrounding areas to ensure food safety, according to Li. Within a month after school opening, school canteens and catering enterprises will go through checks. All the school canteens will reach A-level standards before the end of the year.

Shenzhen reported 10 imported asymptomatic COVID-19 cases Friday and Saturday. The six cases reported Friday, all Chinese nationals, came from Russia and Mexico. The four cases reported Saturday are all Chinese nationals from Russia. After testing positive, they were transferred to Shenzhen No. 3 People’s Hospital for treatment and are now in stable condition, the health commission said.