Flight from Russia source of E. China Nanjing outbreak that prompts closure of ‘Avatar’ set
南京疫情源头：俄罗斯入境航班
A flight from Russia, which was suspended several times by the Chinese aviation regulator for carrying COVID-19 patients, was identified as the source of the latest outbreak at Nanjing Lukou International Airport in East China’s Jiangsu Province, the Nanjing health authority said on Friday.
Airport cleaning staff were infected while cleaning the airplane’s cabin, it said.
The latest COVID-19 outbreak, which had involved more than 200 people in six provinces and two municipalities — Beijing and Chongqing — exposed the loopholes in the virus prevention work of some airports, which had “loosened guard” as the epidemic is generally controlled domestically, public health experts told the Global Times on Friday.
Virus sequences that infected the cleaners, the earliest patients in the outbreak, were the same as those found on imported cases on flight CA910, which arrived in Nanjing on July 10 from Russia, the local authority said.
Virus analysis confirmed they were on the same infection chain, and the sequence is the highly contagious Delta variant.
The cleaners might have failed to obey personal protection requirements when cleaning the cabin. The cleaners were in charge of disposing garbage for domestic and international flights, creating the possibility of others getting infected by contacting the cleaners or contaminated environment, the Nanjing Center for Disease Control and Prevention said at a press briefing on Friday.
Flight CA910 has been suspended at least 10 times due to “circuit breaker” measures for inbound flights, which stipulated a flight be suspended for a week if five or more passengers tested positive, or longer with more infected passengers.
In its 10 flights that triggered a “circuit breaker,” CA910 has flown a total of 69 COVID-19 patients from Moscow to Chinese cities, including Nanjing, Tianjin and Zhengzhou, China Youth Daily reported on Friday.
For inbound flights from countries with a serious pandemic situation, or a flight like CA910 that has been repeatedly suspended, the airport “should have taken stricter examination and disinfection measures,” Zhou Zijun, a professor at Peking University’s School of Public Health, told the Global Times.
“Obviously, Nanjing air authorities neither paid enough attention to the international flights, nor properly managed its [cleaning] team,” Zhou told the Global Times.
Nanjing has so far reported 184 confirmed cases and one silent carrier since the first case was reported on July 20.
7月30日，南京第10场疫情防控新闻发布会召开。南京市疾控中心副主任丁洁介绍，南京本轮疫情为同一个传播链，疫情源头为7月10日的俄罗斯CA910入境航班。
丁洁称，南京目前已经完成了本次疫情52个相关病例的病毒基因的测序工作，均为德尔塔毒株；病毒基因组序列高度同源，提示为同一个传播链。
据其介绍，本次疫情早期报告的机舱保洁员病例的病毒序列与7月10日俄罗斯入境CA910航班报告的1例输入病例的基因序列一致。
经过调查发现，这些保洁员工参加了CA910航班的机舱清扫，工作结束以后，因为防护洗脱不规范，可能造成个别保洁人员感染，继而在保洁员工之间扩散传播；该公司的保洁员同时保障国际和国内航班的垃圾清运，机场其他工作人员由于接触保洁员工或者被污染的环境而感染。
在发布会上，南京市卫生健康委员会副主任杨大锁表示，目前，南京市第三轮大规模核酸检测正在有序进行，截至30日7时，南京市第三轮全员核酸检测已完成采样643万人，查出15例阳性。7月20日至29日24时，南京市累计报告本土确诊病例184例（其中轻型82例、普通型94例、重型8例），本土无症状感染者1例。以上病例均在定点医院隔离治疗。
发布会介绍，为防止疫情外溢，南京除暂停机场客运外，公路查验点由68个增至75个。自25日以来，共查验离开南京车辆达41万辆，查验人员超58万人，劝返超15万人。铁路方面，铁路南京南站、南京火车站共查验27万人，劝返3700人，通过铁路离开南京旅客到29日为止比平时下降超过80%。水运方面，设置5个水上查验点，禁止靠港船舶的船员上岸。
自27日起，南京汽车客运站等9个长途客运站和旅游包车业务已全部暂停运营，跨市19条毗邻公交线缩线至市域内运营。
另据统计，目前南京疫情传播链已延长至7省份，感染200余人。
