A resident of Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong Province, takes a nucleic acid test on Thursday. A Shenzhen resident tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday. The patient is a close contact of a Hong Kong-based truck driver, who was confirmed to be infected on Tuesday. Photo: VCG
Shenzhen city, Guangdong Province, reported one imported COVID-19 re-infected silent carrier from Africa on Tuesday, who tested positive for the coronavirus in September 2020 while in Africa before her symptoms disappeared after taking medication, Shenzhen authorities announced on Wednesday, making it a second "relapse" case following one found in Hangzhou earlier this month.
Reinfected cases are "sporadic and most of their syndromes are mild," so the public has no need to worry, Wang Peiyu, deputy head of Peking University's School of Public Health, told the Global Times on Wednesday.
Due to the inadequate research data base as well as a relatively short time period, it's hard to make a conclusion on whether a relapse case will infect others, Wang said.
The case, surnamed Hu, 32, is a Chinese citizen, who was working in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Hu said she felt pharynx discomfort at the end of September 2020 and tested positive for the coronavirus in Africa; however, her symptoms disappeared after taking medication herself. She later took four tests which all returned negative results, Shenzhen city authorities said.
Hu arrived at the Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport on December 29, 2020, with a negative nucleic acid test. She declared her infection history upon arrival in Guangzhou city.
After going through the mandatory quarantine for 14+7 days, she was confirmed to be re-infected with COVID-19 on Tuesday, and her three close contacts were put under medical observation.
In early January, Hangzhou, the capital of East China's Zhejiang Province, also reported one COVID-19 relapse case, a silent carrier of the coronavirus from the UK, who was a foreign language tutor in Hangzhou.