Photo: Li Hao/GT

Northeast China's Jilin Province, agitated by a new local coronavirus case reported on Thursday, is scrambling to pursue all the case's close contacts in the past two weeks in an all-out bid to quarantine them and prevent the lone case from spreading.

The case put a pause to the province's 73-day record of zero domestic confirmed cases. The provincial health commission reported on Saturday that 18 close contacts had been identified and placed under medical observation.

On Saturday, the province decided to upgrade Shulan city's COVID-19 risk level, where the case was reported, from low to medium. 

As the source of infections of this newly reported case is currently a mystery, the local government has attached great importance and putting utmost efforts to trace the source of infection through various means.

Jilin Party Secretary Bayin Chaolu on Friday instructed that prompt and comprehensive epidemiological investigations must be conducted to find out all the case's contacts in the past half month, the People's Daily reported.

The infectee, a 45-year-old female, had no recent travel and exposure history, according to the local health commission. 

Bayin Chaolu chaired a meeting of the CPC Jilin Provincial Party Committee on Friday, during which he noted that the provincial government should guide the local authorities to carry out thorough investigations of the case and effectively stop the spread of the virus. He also ordered that all close contacts must be quarantined and tested, and high-quality medical resources should be utilized to treat this case.

Epidemic control and prevention is a serious and complicated matter, and local authorities should never be overly optimistic, war-weary, and off-guard, said Bayin Chaolu, hoping that the single case will not trigger a new wave of the outbreak and ruin all its previous efforts.

According to the local authority, from April 8 to 30, Shulan city received 308 returnees from Russia, eight of whom tested positive for COVID-19, and the remaining 300 are currently under quarantine. 

The Shulan local authority has formulated specific guidelines for the recovered COVID-19 cases, per which they would be put under centralized quarantine for two weeks and home quarantine for four weeks after discharge from the hospital. Besides, during quarantine, six nucleic acid tests and two serum antibody tests will be conducted on every recovered patient. 

Global Times