New CCP Virus Outbreak in Northeastern Chinese City Prompts Panic

An employee disinfects a cinema in Wuhan, China, on July 20, 2020. Getty Images

Dalian city in northeastern China announced a new CCP virus outbreak, with authorities announcing three diagnosed patients and 12 asymptomatic carriers on July 23.

But given Chinese authorities’ track record of underreporting infections, it is difficult to assess the true scale of the latest outbreak.

The city soon isolated patients’ close contacts at several hotels, arranged nucleic acid testing on 190,000 people, and locked down several markets and metro stations.

The intense atmosphere generated panic among local residents, who began clearing supermarket and pharmacy shelves.

Dalian authorities claimed that they found the virus on the packaging of frozen seafood in cold storage, which was processed by local company Dalian Kaiyang Seafood. The city government is now claiming that the seafood company is the ground zero of the outbreak.

This is not the first time authorities are blaming contaminated seafood as the source of an outbreak; Beijing initially said imported salmon at a local market caused the capital’s virus resurgence, despite international experts noting that there is no evidence of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus being capable of spreading through contaminated food. Beijing later backtracked from those claims.

The Epoch Times spoke with several relatives and coworkers of the diagnosed patients in Dalian, who are also unsure how the patients contracted the virus.

Police arrive at the Kaiyang Seafood company and sent all employees to a quarantine center in Dalian city, Liaoning Province, China on July 22, 2020. Provided to The Epoch Times by interviewee

Three Patients

Dalian, the southernmost city of Liaoning Province, and has a population of 6.9 million, according to official statistics.

The city government announced the first patient of the latest outbreak on the morning of July 23, then announced two more diagnosed cases later in the day. All three patients had not left the Dalian metropolitan area in recent months, according to authorities.

The first case was Mr. Shi, a 58-year-old seafood processing worker at Kaiyang Seafood in Dalian Bay. Shi developed a fever and fatigue on July 16, then tested positive on July 22. Before confirming the infection, Shi took a metro to go to work, and played at a private mahjong and poker center after work.

All the asymptomatic carriers announced by authorities are Shi’s coworkers who also process seafood at the same workshop, according to the official announcement. The Chinese regime tallies asymptomatic carriers in a separate category from those with clinical symptoms.

The second case was Ms. Leng, a 39-year-old employee at the Dalian Jinwen Metal Products company. Leng started to have a headache, fever, and muscle aches on July 14, and visited a hospital on July 21. Leng continued her daily activities despite having symptoms, including visiting her parents and parents-in-law in nearby Zhuanghe city by bus, attending a family member’s birthday party, and so on.

The third case is Ms. Wang, a 50-year-old tailor. Wang exhibited symptoms on July 16, and visited a hospital on July 22. Wang sews clothes at home. A worker at a local garment factory visits her once every two days to send her raw materials and then picks up her finished products. Wang also shopped at local markets.

A residential compound locked down in Dalian, China on July 22, 2020. Provided to The Epoch Times by interviewee

Source?

A relative of Shi told the Chinese-language Epoch Times in a Thursday phone interview that Shi lives by himself at home, and is currently being isolated and treated at the Dalian No. 6 Hospital.

Shi had stayed at home to take care of his parents in past years, and just recently started to work for Kaiyang Seafood in late May after both his parents passed away, according to the relative.

“We guessed that Shi contracted the virus from Russia-harvested seafood,” the relative said. “Kaiyang Seafood just received a batch of cod and mackerel from a Russian boat. All crew on the ship were infected.”

According to the Liaoning provincial health commission, a Russian boat arrived in Dalian on July 2 with seven crew members. On July 8 and 9, three of the crew were diagnosed COVID-19 positive and four others were diagnosed as asymptomatic carriers.

Shi’s coworker Mr. Yang disagreed with Shi’s relatives. According to him, all Russian crew were isolated immediately after they disembarked in Dalian. Also, the virus is not capable of being transmitted through seafood.

“There are numerous asymptomatic carriers in each Chinese city. Shi is old and not strong,” Yang said, and surmised that Shi may have contracted the virus from an asymptomatic person.

A cashier at a public bathhouse that Shi frequented relayed to The Epoch Times information that Shi told him: he visited a hospital on July 16, but the doctor there did not test him for COVID-19 and treated his symptoms as a normal fever.

Meanwhile, the business owner of the mahjong and poker center Shi visited almost everyday said she and many of her customers are currently being isolated at a hotel. She tested negative on July 23.

All the interviewees The Epoch Times spoke with were also being quarantined by authorities due to them being designated close contacts of Shi.

Lockdown

Xiao Han, a resident of Dalian Bay, told the Chinese-language Epoch Times on Wednesday that her residential compound was fully locked down after one resident was identified as a close contact of a diagnosed case.

Business owners at two large markets in Dalian Bay—the Lijia and Liaoyu markets—said that the markets were closed down by authorities.

The Dalian Bay metro station has also been closed since Wednesday.

Worried the whole city would be locked down soon, Dalian residents crowded into supermarkets and pharmacies to purchase foods as well as protective masks, disinfectant, and other products to prevent virus spread.

Han Lu and Lin Cenxin contributed to this report.