Medics give COVID-19 tests to residents at a test site in Heihe, Heilongjiang Province on December 30, 2020. Photo:VCG

 
At least two people have been punished for deliberately concealing the travel history of COVID-19 confirmed cases or asymptomatic patients during the recent outbreaks in different cities in China. 

A resident in Northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province has been given an administrative penalty for hiding the whereabouts of a close contact of one reported COVID-19 asymptomatic patient amid the fresh outbreak in Wangkui county, according to a local police announcement on Tuesday. 


The concealing of the close contact’s travel history resulted in a 28-hour delay in epidemic prevention and control work for the local anti-epidemic group, including quarantining and conducting timely nucleic acid testing of the relevant personnel, said the police.

The resident, surnamed Tian, who lives in a neighboring county of Wangkui, hid the close contact in his house for eight days and lied to the police during the screening of returnees from Wangkui, the epicenter of the outbreak.

On Wednesday, Wangkui county reported 13 new confirmed cases and two asymptomatic patients.  The county entered lockdown on Monday. 

Tian was given an administrative penalty for refusing to obey the government's order under the state of public health emergency. 

Tian is not the only person to be given a punishment for not cooperating with local epidemiological investigation work. 

In Beijing’s Shunyi district, police have also filed a case in which a confirmed patient allegedly hid his travel history, close contacts and his onset of symptoms. 


The 51-year-old patient caused six others to be infected, all of whom are his family members. A total of 432 close contacts of this family cluster have been tracked down.