A Dangdang bookstore in Fuzhou, East China's Fujian Province Photo: VCG

An employee with Beijing-based e-commerce site dangdang.com, who contracted the novel coronavirus pneumonia, was found to have 82 close contacts, the local decease control center announced over the weekend. 

The 82 people identified as close contacts as of Saturday, including three of the patient's family members and 72 of whom she had contact with working at the office, have been put under collective quarantine, Pang Xinghuo, vice director of the Beijing Center for Disease Prevention and Control, said at  a news conference on Sunday.

The patient surnamed Li hails from Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province and currently lives in a compound in Beijing's Tongzhou district. She and her mother left Beijing for Heilongjiang on January 21 and took a train back to Beijing on February 5. Li's mother was confirmed with the infection on February 15, and she was diagnosed with the disease on February 19.

Her three close family members, which include Li's husband, child, and her father, all showed up negative in nucleic acid testing. Two of her close work contacts at her company who had symptoms of discomfort also tested negative. The rest of the close contacts at dangdang.com have yet to report any abnormalities, according to Pang.

The confirmed cases at the Amazon.com lookalike has shed attention on epidemic control in the workplace, with many web users in China voicing concerns over health security as a number of companies restarted their business operations.

The company was summoned by local authorities on Saturday. The Beijing municipal government also announced over the weekend the setup of a team led by two deputy mayors to deal with work resumption as well as epidemic control.

Global Times