Importing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) into China after international air travel
Xiao‐Ai Zhang, Hang Fan, Run-Zi Qi, Wei Zheng, Kui Zheng, Jian-Hang Gong, Li-Qun Fang, Wei Liu
Abstract
The epidemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) was originated from Wuhan, and spread rapidly nationwide, with some cases occurring in other parts of the world [1][2][3][4].As of Feb 29, 2020, 6009 cases related to Wuhan had been recorded from 53 countries, with some causing subsequent person to person transmission in the local regions [4][5][6][7][8] ( https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/situation-reports/20200229-sitrep-40-covid-19.pdf).The global spread of the SARS-CoV-2 associated with frequent global and regional travelling has greatly increased the possibility of causing global pandemics.Here we reported two case clusters of Chinese citizenship who were identified through inbound screening when returning from international travels.On the morning of Jan 22, 2020, a 26-year-old woman (Patient 1) returning China from Singapore was quarantined at Hangzhou Xiaoshan Airport (Fig. 1 and Table 1).The patient had fever of 37.1 °C and sore throat.Airport Customs quarantined the Patient 1 and other 8 close contracts, including her 25-years-old husband and 4-years-old daughter, 5 passengers who seated in the same row or 2 rows next to the row of Patient 1, and one flight attendant who had served the patient.Among all the close contacts, only her husband had symptom of sore throat.The swabs were collected from symptomatic Patient 1, her husband and daughter for SARS-CoV-2 test.Other 6 quarantined individuals, who were all asymptomatic, were not tested for SARS-CoV-2.Quantitative reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) disclosed positive SARS-CoV-2 result for Patient 1 and her husband (Patient 2), but negative for her daughter on Jan 22 (Appendix).The patient 1 had initial symptoms of fever and headache on January 16, which was resolved after taking medicine (Tylenol).Her family left China on Jan 19 for a four-day international tourism to Singapore.During their tourism, they stayed at the hotel without having close contacts with local persons.Her husband (Patient 2) developed illness on Jan 20 during their stay in Singapore and self-medication was taken on Jan 21.Their 4-years-old daughter remained healthy as of the end of 14-days quarantine on Feb 5. A retrospective tracing revealed close