Mice control team works in Ganzi, Southwest China's Sichuan Province to examine the population of the rodent and test whether they carries plague bacteria in September 2019. File Photo: VCG

The city of Bayan Nur of North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region is urging local residents to strictly follow prevention and control measures regarding the handling of wild animals after a single case of bubonic plague was reported at a local hospital.

The patient, a local farmer, was confirmed to be sickened by the plague, Bayan Nur health authority said late Sunday. Local authorities have implemented strict epidemic control and prevention measures. 

The patient is being treated in isolation in a local hospital and is in stable condition.

There is risk of transmission of the plague among humans, reads an announcement on the website of the city's health authority. 

The authority is requiring local residents to strictly follow prevention and control measures including not hunting illegally, eating or carrying animals and their products out of the area. 

Residents have been told to report finding ill and dead animals and people showing signs of a fever and sudden deaths.  

The level III early warning took effect Sunday and will remain in place until the end of this year, the authority said. 

Beijing health authorities on Monday issued an alert over a bubonic plague infection that occurred in Inner Mongolia, warning the public not to approach or consume wild animals.

When visiting the grasslands in the region, people should maintain good personal protection, and not approach or consume wild animals when visiting the area, an official from the Beijing Center for Disease Prevention and Control (Beijing CDC) said on Monday.

The plague is a severe infectious disease that is highly transmissible and has a high fatality rate. It's a Class A infectious disease, the highest classification under China's Law on the Prevention and Treatment of Infectious Diseases.

Plague-infected rodents are a key source of the spread of the disease which is mainly transmitted among human through bites from infected fleas. 

In November 2019, two people traveling from the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region to Beijing were diagnosed with the pneumonic plague.