Ice blocks are placed to help cool off as people wait to receive COVID-19 tests outside a testing site at the Hexi compound of the Nanjing First Hospital in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, July 22, 2021. (Photo/Xinhua)

Zhongshan city, Guangdong province, has immediately started an emergency response plan including a large-scale nucleic acid testing campaign after a local COVID-19 asymptomatic carrier surnamed Guo was detected on July 22.

Meanwhile a total of 435 close contacts of Guo have now been put under further medical observation, according to a statement released by the city's health commission on July 22.

Guo, 23, an employee of a local company, was diagnosed as an asymptomatic carrier after her nucleic acid test result came out positive again on July 22.

Guo returned to the Zhuhai airport from Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu province, on July 19, and took a train back to Zhongshan and rode back to her dormitory that evening via a car hailed online.

Guo had a negative nucleic acid test result on July 14 when she left Zhongshan for Nanjing, where a minor outbreak of COVID-19 is underway now. She visited the cities of Nanjing and Wuxi.

Guo went to work in her company after returning to Zhongshan. Her nucleic acid test yielded a positive result during routine testing on July 21, and she was later recorded as an asymptomatic carrier when her nucleic acid test came out positive again on July 22.

Guo has now been transferred to a designated hospital for further medical observation and treatment. 

12 new locally transmitted cases reported

The Chinese mainland on July 22 reported 48 new COVID-19 cases, of which 36 were imported and 12 were locally transmitted, the National Health Commission said on July 23.

All of the 12 new locally transmitted cases were reported in Jiangsu province.

Of the new imported cases, 14 were reported in Guangdong, 13 in Yunnan, three in Shanghai, two each in Sichuan and Shaanxi, and one each in Tianjin and Hubei, according to the commission.

July 22 also saw three suspected cases in Shanghai, all arriving from outside the mainland.

No new deaths related to COVID-19 were reported on July 22.

East China's Anhui province on July 22 reported a new locally transmitted asymptomatic COVID-19 case in Hexian county, Ma'anshan city, the provincial health commission said on July 23.

The 52-year-old asymptomatic carrier is the husband of an airport cleaner at the Nanjing Lukou International Airport, who is also one of the confirmed cases in Nanjing.

The asymptomatic carrier mainly lives in Jiangning district of Nanjing. Since the end of June, he had been driven between Nanjing and Hexian county due to temporary decoration work.

Nanjing has registered a cluster of local cases after positive results were found during routine nucleic acid testing for its airport staff.

Source: Xinhua, China Daily

Editor: Annie