Photo: courtesy of passenger surnamed Cui from G14 high-speed rail from Shanghai to Beijing on Thursday

The two high-speed trains bound for Beijing, which were urgently stopped and put under centralized quarantine on Thursday after it was determined that close contacts of a positive COVID-19 case were onboard, have tested all personnel onboard the train and returned negative results on Friday. 

The two close contacts were crew members onboard the G14 high-speed train from Shanghai and G108 from Jiaxing in East China's Zhejiang Province. Both trains were heading to Beijing. 

On Thursday afternoon, China Railway Shanghai Group received a notice from East China's Shandong Province that one of the confirmed COVID-19 patients had boarded a train on October 18, and that two crew members were also onboard during the same trip. 

Citing health concerns, the Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention asked the G14 and G108 to immediately stop at the nearest train station, and screen all people onboard for potential COVID-19 infections. The test results came on Friday morning, reporting all 344 passengers and the two crew members negative for COVID-19, according to local authorities. 

Photo: courtesy of passenger surnamed Cui from G14 high-speed rail from Shanghai to Beijing on Thursday

A passenger, surnamed Cui, who was onboard the G14 train from Shanghai to Beijing, who has now been put under quarantine at a designated hotel in Jinan in Shandong, told the Global Times on Friday that the train suddenly stopped at Jinan and there were medical staff with the epidemic prevention outfit entering, requiring all onboard to switch to N95 masks. 

Passengers in carriages in which the two crew members had been on duty were sent to a hotel, Cui noted, adding that the hotel room fees and meals are all free of charge, and they can order meals online which can be delivered to their rooms. 

"While some complained about their 'bad luck,' most stayed calm and are willing to cooperate with medical staff to get tested," he noted. Quarantine will last for at least seven days, and two or three more nucleic acid tests will be taken. 

On Thursday China registered a total of 48 new confirmed domestically transmitted cases, bringing the total to 326 cases. Area with the most confirmed cases is still in the China-Mongolia border city of Ejin Banner in North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, which experts believe could be the source of virus of the latest round of epidemic surge that began in Mongolia. 

Heihe in Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, a major port city bordering Russia was put under citywide lockdown, after reporting a a case surge on Thursday following nine new cases, and the province's capital city of Harbin issued an emergency notice late Thursday night suggesting residents to not leave the city unless necessary. 

An epidemic forecasting system developed in Lanzhou University stated that the latest wave of viral surge could be brought under control by November 9, with total confirmed cases  estimated to hit 592 given proper prevention measures are effectively taken and transmission chains are all detected in time.