Shanghai monitoring Harbin coronavirus case

The neighbor of an asymptomatic coronavirus carrier in northeast China, a woman surnamed Han, stayed in Shanghai for three days earlier this month and had been to a hotel and a beauty salon during that time, the local health commission said on Tuesday.

It said the health authority in Heilongjiang Province had tested Han five times between April 3 and 15, all with negative results.

After news reports that Han, who is related to a clustering infection case in Heilongjiang’s Harbin City, had visited Shanghai, the city's health commission immediately contacted Heilongjiang's health authority and was told that Han, a student of New York University student, had flown from New York on March 18 and made transfers in Hong Kong and Beijing to Harbin.

She was put in home isolation after arrival with the restriction lifted on April 3 after a negative nucleic acid test result.

On April 5, she flew to Shanghai and had surgery at a beauty salon the next day. She then returned to her hotel to rest. She visited the salon again on April 7 and then went back to the hotel. On the morning of April 8, she took a plane from Shanghai to Harbin.

During her stay in the city, she had only been to the beauty salon and the hotel.

The health authority in Heilongjiang said Han is a neighbor of a man surnamed Cao, a confirmed case, but so far there was no evidence to show the two had direct contact. After Han’s return to Harbin, she tested negative in four tests between April 10 and 15.

The Shanghai Health Commission said it will keep touch with the health authority of Heilongjiang and watch closely how the epidemic-related investigation goes.

Li Xikun, an investigating officer with the Harbin Center for Disease Control and Prevention, told CCTV that on April 9, a confirmed case and three asymptomatic coronavirus carriers had shown up in Harbin. Cao, one of the three carriers, was confirmed on April 14.

When looking for Cao's close contacts, they noticed Han, who had a travel and living history in coronavirus-hit New York. Han and her family are now in quarantine at a hotel.