Medical team members take an oath before setting out for Hubei Province, in Nanning, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Feb. 4, 2020. The second batch of medical teams of 136 members from Guangxi set off on Tuesday to aid the coronavirus control efforts in Hubei. (Xinhua/Zhou Hua)

A man was detained for concealing that he had traveled from Wuhan, the epicenter of the novel coronavirus outbreak, in Hubei Province and frequently joining village banquets, causing thousands to be quarantined. 

The man in Jinjiang, East China's Fujian Province concealed his travel history and went out multiple times for banquets with more than 3,000 attendees in late January. He was confirmed to have infected the novel coronavirus on Sunday, causing seven others to be infected and more than 4,000 quarantined, the Beijing News reported on Wednesday. 

He has been taken into police custody, while the exact number of people affected is still under investigation.

Similarly, a man in East China's Shandong Province, surnamed Zhang, deliberately hid his personal travel experience to Anhui Province, which neighbors Hubei Province, when he was seeing a doctor at a local hospital, which led to 68 medical personnel and 49 others being quarantined after he was confirmed as having the coronavirus, according to a statement issued by the local police on Wednesday. 

Zhang has been isolated and put on record by the police. Zhang's behavior violated China's Criminal Law and law on the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases, said the statement. 

A survey conducted on Sina Weibo showed that 91 percent of respondents support the idea of including the hiding of personal contact history on the credit list during the national campaign for prevention and control of the novel coronavirus. A total of 78,000 users took the survey online as of press time on Wednesday. 

Global Times