Chinese city battles to contain coronavirus clusters in two hospitals
- Officials in Harbin have been punished for their handling of the case, in which an 87-year-old patient is thought to have infected 35 others
- The Covid-19 infection has been traced back to a student who returned from the US and was cleared to leave quarantine after 14 days
The northeastern Chinese city of Harbin is battling to contain two new Covid-19 clusters linked to local hospitals.
On Friday the local government in the capital of Heilongjiang appealed to people who had visited the hospitals between April 2 and 9 to get tested for the disease and announced that 36 people had already tested positive. It also announced that some officials had been punished for their “lax” handling of the outbreak.
The outbreak was traced to an 87-year old named Chen, who been treated for a cerebral stroke in Harbin No 2 Hospital between April 2 and 6 was then transferred to First Hospital affiliated to Harbin Medical University.
The man is believed to have passed on the infection to relatives and hospital staff, some of whom tested positive before they showed any symptoms.
But officials have further traced the infection back to a student who had spent 14 days in quarantine at her home after returning from the US on March 19.
