Airport employees pass by closed shops at Baoan International Airport, Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong Province on June 19, 2021. Photo: CFP

Shenzhen in South China's Guangdong Province is implementing stricter outbound travel restrictions, with all shops in the airport closing and disinfections being carried out, after more cases were reported related to the city's airport.

Baoan International Airport has upgraded its level of epidemic prevention and control due to the recent confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the airport, China Central Television reported on Sunday.

"All stores in the terminal building should be closed and staff will carry out large-scale disinfection on the ground of the transportation center in the terminal," Chen Minsheng, the deputy secretary of the Party committee of Shenzhen Airport Group, said at a press conference on Sunday.

"All staff who are in direct contact with passengers in the terminal should wear Level 1 protective clothes when working," Chen said.

38 confirmed cases were found on a CA868 international flight on June 10, according to the press conference.

The city has further strengthened controls on passengers on CA868 international flights, and sent experts to guide the prevention work in treatment hospitals. The medical personnel participating in medical treatment are under closed operation management, having nucleic acid tests once a day.

Starting from Sunday, all passengers who plan to leave the province from Shenzhen through airports, railway stations, bus stations, passenger terminals or other transportation stations will be required to provide a negative nucleic acid test within 48 hours, said Xu Zhongping, deputy director of Transport Bureau of Shenzhen at the press conference.

Shenzhen reported two locally confirmed COVID-19 cases on Friday, one of which, surnamed Zhu, is a 21-year-old waitress at the city's Baoan International Airport.

Genome sequencing shows the virus case has the same origin with the three imported cases on the CA868 international flight and a June 14 case, all of which were the Delta variant -- a COVID-19 strain first detected in India.

A residential area of the case in Baoan district has been designated as medium-risk area from Friday.