Chongqing starts mass tests

Outbound traveller tests positive for Covid-19 in S. Korea

CHONGQING: The south-western municipality has launched largescale Covid-19 nucleic acid testing, tracing and disinfection after an outbound traveller was diagnosed as an asymptomatic coronavirus case upon arriving in South Korea, the local health commission said.

The Korean national is an employee of a Chongqing firm and had been in the city since Feb 1.

He travelled by company car to Shuangliu International Airport in the city of Chengdu, Sichuan province, on Thursday night.

He departed from the airport on Friday and arrived at Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul on the same day.

He was tested upon arrival and received his diagnosis on Saturday, said the commission.

The local government has temporarily shut down the company and the hotel he had stayed in since his arrival in Chongqing.

By 9am yesterday, 3,283 people, including the individual’s local colleagues, hotel staff, and hotel guests who had checked in after Wednesday, had been sampled, and 2,674 had tested negative for the virus.

A total of 49 close contacts of the individual and their 100 close contacts have been put under medical observation.

Additionally, 493 samples collected from objects and places related to the case had all tested negative, according to the commission.

Tang Wenge, deputy chief of

Chongqing’s centre for disease control and prevention, said that source tracing work in relation to the case is underway, including sampling and the testing of those in the company who had dealt with imported materials.

The individual’s return trip to South Korea will be studied further, and more testing and tracing will be conducted on his close contacts and parcels received from abroad since Nov 13, added Tang. — Xinhua