Thousands of airport workers at Shanghai’s largest international airport were sealed inside Sunday after an outbreak of COVID-19 was detected, reported WaPo. 

On Sunday night, hazmat suit-clad health workers were seen on video, herding thousands of airport workers into the basement of Shanghai Pudong International Airport. 

Chaos shortly broke out as people screamed: 

“Just let me go,” shouts one man in the crowd. “I don’t want to die here,” cries out another.

On Sunday night, Shanghai officials took action to test more than 17,000 airport workers following two new positive COVID-19 cases at the airport, bringing total cases this month to seven. The new cases were detected at the airport’s international cargo shipments area. 

By Monday morning, 17,719 airport workers were tested for the virus – about 11,544 results came back negative so far, airport officials said. 

During a news conference Monday, Shanghai officials blamed the latest cluster in cases at the airport on cargo shipped from North America. 

“There was a lot of foam cushioning inside, and it was damp. 

“Research has shown the coronavirus can survive in sealed, damp conditions, and neither of the two was wearing a face mask while cleaning it,” said Sun Xiaodong, vice director of the city’s pandemic control center.

The officials also said the airport would implement stricter virus prevention measures for inbound international cargo.  

This isn’t the first time China has tried to portray imported goods from heavily-infected countries for creating outbreaks in the country. 

In July, China claimed imported shrimp from Ecuador was carrying traces of the virus. 

Then in September, China was at it again, when it urged domestic companies to halt frozen imports of food from countries that have been severely impacted by the pandemic due to the risk of transmission through packaging.

Virus cases tied to imports are just another tool for Beijing to keep the narrative alive. The virus originated outside China – Beijing has been caught implicitly supporting these conspiracy theories.