Three people tested positive for Covid-19 at Shanghai’s Pudong airport sparking off mass testing of thousands of people amid reportedly chaotic scenes.
Chaotic scenes were captured on video where people could be seen yelling as officials in hazmat suits were escorting them into a restricted space.
About 16,000 people were tested overnight.
Shanghai has reported at least seven local cases since 9 November, mainly involving this group, following five months with no new infections.
State media showed people in orderly queues lining up the airport’s multi-storey carpark. However, Chinese social media platform Weibo paint a different picture, saying the testing turned into chaos when too many workers flooded into the site, pushing it beyond capacity.
The videos were since then taken down.
*Chaos at Shanghai Pudong Airport after three recent confirmed COVID-19 cases are airport workers. #上海 #浦东 #China pic.twitter.com/cHcwcRay9d
— ChinaPropertyFocus (@ChinaPropFocus) November 22, 2020
Wild scenes at Shanghai Pudong airport – multiple vids going around of what appears to be a sudden decision by authorities to test all staff for #COVID19 after 2 positive cases detected. Reports say authorities ultimately relented as things were getting out of hand. pic.twitter.com/Xenus4dHPR
— Bill Birtles (@billbirtles) November 22, 2020
According to Chinese news agency Xinhua, the cargo workers will now be given regular tests and those in high-risk jobs will also be given vaccines.
While no Chinese vaccine is fully approved yet, some frontline workers like medical staff have already received a dose of an experimental vaccine.
The coronavirus pandemic first started in China in November last year. After enforcing some of the strictest lockdowns to curb the spread, the nation recorded just over 92,000 infections overall.
READ: China has administered experimental Covid-19 vaccines on almost A MILLION people