Expert: Yingkou may be origin of COVID clusters

A new case of COVID-19 in Liaoning province was confirmed on Sunday by disease control authorities, who suspect the woman was infected in the port city of Yingkou over the May Day holiday.

The patient, 83, had traveled from Shenyang to Yingkou with 12 people between May 3 and May 5, according to the Shenyang Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

She was given a nucleic acid test for COVID-19 on Saturday after coming into contact with a patient from Anhui province who was confirmed to have the virus, said Wang Ping, deputy director of the Shenyang CDC.

The woman's son, 61, tested positive for coronavirus on Saturday.

"The two infections in Shenyang were not listed in the priority group for COVID-19 vaccination, which covers people ages 18 to 59.And they are now in good condition, both physically and psychologically," said Wang.

Anhui province reported a COVID-19 case on Thursday in the city of Lu'an. By Saturday, it had confirmed five cases; two in Hefei, the provincial capital, and three in Lu'an.

Lu'an has conducted citywide nucleic acid testing and by Sunday afternoon, more than 1.04 million samples had been tested, China Central Television reported.

Wu Zunyou, chief epidemiologist at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said on Saturday that the resurgence of COVID-19 may have originated in Yingkou and be linked to imported cases.

Although Lu'an reported the first confirmed case in the current cluster, Wu said the onset of the Yingkou-linked cases was earlier.

Yingkou is a major port, which sends and receives cargo to 130 ports in more than 40 countries and regions.

"Usually, it has been either imported cases or items that have resulted in new cases in China," Wu said. "As an inland province, it's less likely that Anhui's resurgence resulted from imported cases."

China's National Health Commission has sent working groups to Liaoning and Anhui to guide the prevention and control work of the COVID-19 epidemic.

As of Sunday morning, there had been 13 medium-risk regions relating to the resurgence of sporadic COVID-19 cases on the Chinese mainland. Ten are in Liaoning and three in Anhui.