Mudanjiang city, located in Heilongjiang Province, announced 11 asymptomatic carriers in the past three days, after a period of several weeks in which no asymptomatic or confirmed cases were officially announced (asymptomatic cases are reported as a separate category in China).
The local train station, bus stops, and airport have suspended services, while students who returned to school were asked to go back home after spending just a few hours in class.
Mudanjiang, like much of the country, launched travel restrictions at the end of January to prevent the virus from spreading. Only one person from each household could go out every day with an entry permit. Schools were shut down and classes were held online.
On April 7, after a brief period in which most regions of China reported little to no new infections, high schools in Mudanjiang reopened for senior students. Other grades didn’t reopen.
Asymptomatic Carriers
The Heilongjiang provincial health commission announced on May 26 that two people were found to be asymptomatic carriers in Mudanjiang when they took nucleic acid tests recently. The commission didn’t explain why they took tests despite feeling no symptoms.
According to the announcements, the infections happened around a store reconstruction project. Zhang and Yu’s store supplied the materials, while the other people infected were the refurbished store owner, construction workers, and their family members.
Local Residents
Li (pseudonym) is a postal worker in Dong’an district in Mudanjiang. He told the Chinese-language Epoch Times on May 28 that he heard from his colleagues that a high school student tested positive during a nucleic acid test that was required for all students before returning to school. The test result came out on May 25, which caused all high schools to close that day—one day before local authorities announced the first two asymptomatic carriers.Li also said that the owner of a restaurant close to the post office that he works for was also diagnosed with the CCP virus. “All people [who work or live] on this street were asked to take nucleic acid tests,” Li said.
The Epoch Times could not independently verify the information Li provided.
Ms. Huang is a taxi driver in Mudanjiang. She told the Chinese-language Epoch Times on May 28 that residential compounds where the asymptomatic carriers live have been fully locked down.
“Shuguang Xincheng has 107 residential buildings and is one of the largest residential compounds in Heilongjiang Province,” Huang said. “The whole compound was locked down on the evening of May 25.”
Huang said the compound still allows one member of each family to leave or enter once a day for shopping. But in the residential building where the asymptomatic carrier lives, no residents are allowed to leave the building.
Huang said the Lishui Lantian residential compound, where one of her colleagues lives, was also locked down.
Huang also shared a text message she received from a local residents’ messaging group, which notified people to avoid going to nine residential compounds and one neighborhood.
Comparing the notification and government official announcements, seven of the residential compounds are places that the announced asymptomatic carriers visited in the past 14 days. The other two residential compounds—Qingfu Sanqi and Steel Factory—were not mentioned in the official announcements.
The neighborhood of Rizhao street was not mentioned in government announcements, but matched with the area Li described, where a restaurant owner was infected.
Chinese state-run media reported that intercity bus stations and the train station in Mudanjiang city were closed on May 27. Authorities didn’t publicly announce these suspensions.
