Eastern Chinese City Relocates Hundreds After Family Is Diagnosed With COVID-19

Health workers walk out from a blocked off area after spraying disinfectant in Huangpu district, Shanghai, China, on Jan. 27, 2021. STR/AFP via Getty Images

A young Chinese woman who was studying in Ireland recently became the target of online bullying after she and her father tested positive for the CCP virus.

After the daughter was diagnosed on Jan. 22 in her home town of Zhenjiang city in eastern Jiangsu Province, the local government locked down more and more residential compounds in the area where they lived. Residents are not allowed to leave their compound, while hundreds of people who live near the father and daughter were being forcibly sent to quarantine centers.

The Zhenjiang government claimed that the daughter and father were infected overseas and considered them imported cases.

However, the father did not leave China in the past year, while the daughter arrived in China on Jan. 4. An infectious disease doctor analyzed the family’s travel record and told The Epoch Times that the daughter likely contracted the virus in China.

But after over three million local residents had to isolate at home and waited in long queues for COVID-19 testing, public sentiment turned against the father-daughter duo. Many left malicious comments online. On Jan. 24, the daughter’s social media accounts were disabled, leading people to suspect that she made the decision after the online bullying.

Zhenjiang government staff move residents from Guoxin Yihe resident compound to quarantine centers in Zhenjiang, eastern China's Jiangsu Province on Jan. 24, 2021. screenshot/video supplied by Zhenjiang netizen

Infection

Daughter Liu Yuxin studied in Ireland and did not return to China in 2020 due to the escalating pandemic, according to Liu’s posts on the popular social media platform WeChat.

On Dec. 30, Liu took a nucleic acid test and an antibody test for COVID-19 in Ireland, which came back negative. On Jan. 2, Liu took a flight to Helsinki, Finland for her connecting flight.

On Jan. 3, Liu took another nucleic acid and antibody test in Helsinki, which again came back negative. She was allowed to get on her next flight to Shanghai.

Upon arrival in China, Liu was placed into quarantine at a hotel in Shanghai for three days. Then, she was transported to Kunshan in Suzhou city temporarily. Afterward, she was sent to Danyang in Zhenjiang city, where she was quarantined in a hotel for 11 days, according to a  Zhenjiang government announcement.

On Jan. 18, Liu’s parents picked her up from the quarantine center and brought her to their home in Runzhou district, where Liu’s parents and her maternal grandmother live with their two dogs.

Though Chinese authorities require self-quarantine at home for travelers from overseas, Liu went outside frequently. She went shopping, had meals at restaurants, visited her paternal grandmother, and bought a pair of glasses while accompanied by her parents. Her parents also did not self-quarantine.

On the afternoon of Jan. 21, Liu had a fever and visited Zhenjiang No. 1 People’s Hospital with her parents. On Jan. 22, Liu was diagnosed with COVID-19. She was then transferred to the Zhenjiang Infectious Disease Hospital (No. 3 Hospital) for treatment.

Liu’s father was diagnosed on Jan. 24.

People line up to be tested for COVID-19 at Daxing district in Beijing, China, on Jan. 26, 2021. Stringer/AFP via Getty Images

Doctor’s Opinion

Cheng Yuan-yu, attending physician at Shangwen Clinic in Kaohsiung, Taiwan and a former infectious disease doctor at Taipei Veterans General Hospital, told The Epoch Times that he thought it was more likely that Liu contracted the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus while in China.

“If Liu contracted the virus on Jan. 2 or Jan. 3 [during her trip from Ireland to China], the likelihood that she did not experience symptoms until Jan. 21 is very small. It’s more likely that she contracted the virus in China, such as by not wearing her mask properly,” Cheng said.

He hoped people in China would stop resenting Liu and urged Zhenjiang authorities to be more transparent when disclosing information about the local outbreak.

Yichang city in central China's Hubei Province orders to quarantine visitors from Runzhou district in Zhenjiang city who arrived after Jan. 18, 2020. Provided to The Epoch Times by insider

Situation in Zhenjiang

An employee of the Zhenjiang Spring Spa Hotel told the Chinese-language Epoch Times that the facility had been turned into a quarantine center recently. “Some of the quarantined people are residents from the Guoxin Yihe resident compound [where Liu lives],” the source said.

The staffer added that many hotels in the city had been converted into quarantine centers because people from residential compounds were being transferred there.

Three businesspersons who operate restaurants close to the Guoxin Yihe residential compound told the Chinese-language Epoch Times in phone interviews that they and their neighbors were self-quarantining at home because of the outbreak.

“After someone tests positive, all residents who live in the same building will be quarantined at hotels,” a businessman said. “We were forced to close our business and self-quarantine because we live close to the diagnosed patients.”

The Zhenjiang residents whom The Epoch Times contacted all said they were locked down at home.

Zhenjiang authorities did not publicly announce a lockdown mandate, and only confirmed that they moved Liu’s neighbors to a quarantine center.

But the interviewees said they knew people from other residential buildings who were also moved to quarantine centers.