A massive Covid-19 screening operation is taking place this Monday in Shanghai.
It concerns the employees of the largest international airport in this eastern Chinese city.
This operation comes after a few cases of the disease have been detected in the metropolis.
These positive tests are linked to air cargo employees.
The Asian country has largely contained the epidemic since the spring, thanks to tests, confinements, quarantines and tracking of movements.
Life has resumed an almost normal course, with the exception of localized outbreaks.
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Covid-19: the events of the day live
The metropolis of Shanghai (24 million inhabitants) reported in November of six local patients with Covid-19 linked to Pudong international airport.
Most of the cases have been detected in recent days.
Authorities said two air cargo workers at Shanghai Pudong airport who tested positive entered a container from North America in late October without wearing a mask.
17,700 tests in a few hours
During the night from Sunday to Monday, medical personnel in full protective suits led a crowd of employees to a parking lot to carry out a coronavirus screening.
17,700 people were sampled within hours, the official China New news agency reported.
She specifies that 11,500 results are negative.
When the massive testing campaign was announced, chaos gripped the airport on Sunday.
Employees fearing a mandatory fortnight were contained somehow as shown in these images.
WATCH: Chaos at Shanghai's international airport as hundreds of staff were herded into a car park, after two cargo handlers tested positive to COVID-19.
Plans for mass testing sparked mayhem, with workers fearing a 14-day quarantine.
Full story, 6.00pm on # 9News pic.twitter.com/5krHQ4pnho
- 9News Melbourne (@ 9NewsMelb) November 23, 2020
Employees working in the air cargo industry will now undergo regular screening, according to Zhou Junlong, vice president of the Shanghai Airport Authority.
Airport workers with particularly exposed jobs will also be able to get vaccinated on a voluntary basis.
Since this summer, China has authorized inoculation of experimental anti-Covid-19 vaccines for urgent cases, in particular caregivers, or employees and students going abroad.
The country organizes massive screenings during the emergence of local sources of contamination.
Current suspicions are mainly focused on imported frozen foods, after the detection of traces of the new coronavirus on several of these products.
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The metropolis of Tianjin, in northern China, 100 km southeast of Beijing, has also reported a few cases in recent days.
The city is currently testing around 2.6 million people.
