Jiji village, which is subject to the restrictions, is part of Wangji town in Cao county.
The patient, a 30-year-old male surnamed Ma, is a native of Cao, the county’s COVID-19 Command Center said in a statement. A day after arriving in the city of Guangzhou from Dubai on Aug. 15, he was diagnosed with COVID-19 but as an asymptomatic case.
He received medical care, and following his recovery, he was quarantined from Aug. 21 to Sept. 5.
At some point, Ma was transferred to a designated site for quarantine. He tested negative on Sept. 6 and 7 when he took a nucleic acid test (NAT) and an antibody test, respectively; a second NAT on Sept. 12 also came back negative.
However, on Sept. 14, additional NAT and antibody tests revealed a reinfection. All of his close contacts have since been placed under quarantine, authorities said.
The news spread on mainland China’s social media, including Douyin (the Chinese version of TikTok) and Kuaishou.
A local villager confirmed the case of reinfection, in a phone interview with The Epoch Times. He disclosed that his whole village is still under lockdown, with residents barred from leaving the village and no visitors are allowed into the area. He said a local highway is off-limits and government staffers are guarding every access point to their village. All staffers entering or exiting the village are required to wear white protective suits and receive disinfection, and all villagers must take NATs.
A netizen who goes by the name of “Just catch you smiling” provided more details in a social media post, saying that the patient had picked up his nephew from an elementary school, visited a couple of shops—including a hardware store—and that his contacts totaled 128.
Townspeople in Wangji have begun staying at home, according to netizens’ social media posts. Streets are deserted and local shops have closed up, they said.
