Nanjing to Test Nearly 2 Million Residents After Covid Outbreak at Airport

The eastern city of Nanjing has begun testing all the 1.9 million residents of its Jiangning district for Covid-19 after nine workers at the city’s airport tested positive on Tuesday.

The district-wide testing started Wednesday morning after the cases were discovered during routine nucleic acid testing for workers at Nanjing Lukou International Airport, according to the city’s government (link in Chinese). Four communities have since been listed as medium-risk areas, and one neighborhood has been locked down (link in Chinese), the authorities said.

According to the local health department (link in Chinese), all but two of the cases are symptomatic. The nine workers are all cleaners at the airport, which is the largest in Jiangsu province.

Residents of the Jiangsu capital have been urged to avoid unnecessary travel (link in Chinese) and must present a negative nucleic acid test taken within the previous 48 hours if they want to leave the city.

Authorities in the province’s cities of Nantong, Yancheng, Taizhou and Yangzhou have also issued notices requiring residents who’ve been to the Nanjing airport in the past two weeks to report to their neighborhood authorities and take a Covid-19 test.

As of Wednesday morning, the airport had cancelled at least 480 flights, accounting for about 60% the total number scheduled, domestic media reported, citing data from online aviation information platform Variflight.com.

On Tuesday, China reported 22 new Covid-19 cases (link in Chinese), according to the National Health Commission, two of which were locally transmitted and the rest of which were imported. The two local cases were in Yunnan province’s Longchuan county, which is located in a region bordering Myanmar that has seen repeated outbreaks since the pandemic began.

Contact reporter Cai Xuejiao (xuejiaocai@caixin.com) and editor Joshua Dummer (joshuadummer@caixin.com)

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