(Reuters) – China’s financial hub of Shanghai said on Friday it had confirmed two coronavirus cases in a married couple in the city’s Pudong district, its first locally transmitted COVID-19 infections in 11 days.
A 39-year-old man and a 34-year-old woman were reported as suspected cases on Friday afternoon and their nucleic acid tests returned positive results, the Shanghai government said in a statement.
A team of experts is tracking people who may have been exposed and taking appropriate preventative measures, it added.
The last local coronavirus infection in Shanghai was reported on Nov. 9 in a man who worked at Pudong Airport. Before that, the last confirmed local case was on June 29 as measures aimed at stopping an initially alarming spread of the virus in the city proved successful.
China’s National Health Commission earlier on Friday reported 17 new coronavirus cases on Nov. 19, all of them infections originating from overseas.
As of Nov. 19, the total number of confirmed COVID-19 infections to date in mainland China stood at 86,398 cases, while the death toll remained unchanged at 4,634.
(Reporting by Tom Daly, Editing by Timothy Heritage)
