Shanghai COVID-19 Outbreak Spreads to Nearby Province

Passengers arrive at Pudong International Airport in Shanghai, China on Sept. 29, 2020. HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP via Getty Images

A new wave outbreak of COVID-19 in Shanghai has spread outside the city’s borders while another metropolis, Tianjin, has entered “wartime” mode after a cluster of infections.

Shanghai authorities first confirmed a set of domestic COVID-19 patients on Nov. 9. A day later, Anhui Province—about a five-hour drive away—claimed that a new local CCP virus patient contracted the disease in Shanghai.

Meanwhile, Chinese netizens were shocked at the news that Brazil’s health regulator, Anvisa, halted clinical trials of a potential COVID-19 vaccine manufactured by Chinese drug company Sinovac, citing a “serious adverse event.”

Many Chinese have already been vaccinated with Sinovac’s CoronaVac.

Eastern China’s Zhejiang Province announced on Oct. 17 that 743,000 people in the region have been inoculated with CoronaVac. The province aims to vaccinate all residents, about 58.5 million, according to an official announcement in February.

Sinovac issued a statement on Nov. 11 claiming that the adverse effects may not be related to the vaccine. “We are confident in the safety of the vaccine,” it said. Unconvinced, netizens expressed concerns on social media, which were soon censored by authorities.

Shanghai

On Nov. 9, Li Guohua, deputy district chief of Pudong, Shanghai, announced a new COVID-19 patient during a press conference: a 51-year-old man surnamed Wang who lives in Yingqian village, Zhuqiao township in Pudong and works at the Pudong International Airport as a cargo mover. Wang visited the hospital after experiencing a fever, stuffy nose, and fatigue on Nov. 8, and was diagnosed on the second day.

Where and how Wang contracted the virus is still a mystery.

Zhang Lei lives in Wang’s village. He said that all villagers were asked to line up for COVID-19 nucleic acid tests on Nov. 9, and the village has been fully locked down since then.

“All businesses in our village were closed, including the nursery school,” Zhang complained in a phone interview.

“We don’t know when we can leave home freely.”

Business owners at the luxury designer outlet Florentia Village, which is located about 2.5 miles away from the village, said Wang had visited in the past 14 days and the stores he frequented were forced to close down.

Ms. Shi, a Shanghai resident, told the Chinese-language Epoch Times that she was worried about the virus spreading in Shanghai after it hosted the China International Import Expo (CIIE) from Nov. 5 to Nov. 10. Many exhibitors from across the country would have arrived via the airport where Wang worked.

Shanghai’s health commission director Wu Jinglei said at a press conference that 1.22 million people attended the CIIE from Nov. 5 to Nov. 8, when Wang was working.

On Nov. 10, Fuyang city in Anhui Province announced that a 50-year-old local man surnamed Lan who worked with Wang in Shanghai for several months had contracted COVID-19. He returned to his hometown of Yingshang county (located in Fuyang) on Nov. 5.

The Fuyang health commission said in its announcement that Lan felt sick and visited a hospital on Nov. 7, but wasn’t diagnosed. On the evening of Nov. 9, local authorities quarantined Lan at a hospital. The next morning, Lan was diagnosed with COVID-19.

Tianjin

Meanwhile, authorities placed Tianjin in northern China, a city of 15.6 million, in “wartime” mode due to an outbreak in the Binhai New Area.

According to state-run newspaper Tianjin Daily, two neighborhoods in the district were locked down on Nov. 9, which means no resident can leave without a negative COVID-19 test result performed within the past seven days.

The newspaper reported details about two infections disclosed by authorities: a cargo unloading worker at a frozen food company, and a truck driver who shipped frozen food.

Tianjin officials claimed the virus came from frozen pork knuckles imported from Germany. However, there currently is no research to suggest COVID-19 can be spread through contaminated foods.