Zhengzhou Photo:VCG

A patient escort surnamed Ruan in the Sixth People's Hospital in Zhengzhou, capital city of Central China's Henan Province, is being investigated by local police for hiding itinerary and posing risks of spreading the coronavirus. The city reported a total of 114 infections as of Wednesday in the latest outbreak.

The Public Security Bureau of Zhengzhou announced in a statement on Wednesday that Ruan is suspected of violating regulations of anti-epidemic and disease prevention law as he intentionally hid the fact that he went to internet cafes near the hospital several times during the period from July 16 to 30.

Ruan was confirmed as a COVID-19 patient on July 30.

Zhengzhou reported three newly confirmed cases and 21 asymptomatic infections on Wednesday.

The city expanded lockdown area on Wednesday to 130 communities in Erqi and Guancheng districts, affecting about 784,700 residents.

Zhengzhou has one high-risk area and six middle-risk areas as of press time. The city has carried out a citywide nucleic acid testing on all residents, among which 99 infections have been screened as of Wednesday 4 pm. 

The latest outbreak in Zhengzhou can be traced back to Sixth People's Hospital, where cleaners, medical staff and inpatients got infected at an early stage of the flare-up.

"The outbreak of the epidemic resurgence in the city exposed the loopholes of some hospitals in the implementation of infection control," Wang Songqiang, director of the Zhengzhou Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said at a press conference on Saturday evening.

An elderly woman surnamed Mao is also being investigated by police in Yangzhou, East China's Jiangsu Province, on Tuesday, as she left Nanjing for Yangzhou to live with her sister and went out for mahjong parlors, causing the spread of COVID-19 in the city.