Photo: Xinhua

Despite reports of coronavirus cases in the Chinese mainland, especially outside the hard-hit Hubei Province, seeing a consistent decline to almost zero, the discovery of a recent case from abroad in Zhongwei, in Northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region has sounded alarm bells, giving a harsh reminder that it's still too early for people to let down their guards regarding epidemic prevention. 

This has proven that new cases from abroad also pose a demanding conundrum for authorities in preventing a second wave of mass infections.

Zhongwei announced the discovery on Wednesday evening via an official notice, which also detailed the travel itinerary of the patient, which included boarding a flight from Iran on February 19, making a 16-hour stopover in Moscow, Russia on February 20 and arriving at Shanghai Pudong International Airport on February 21. 

After the patient, whose nationality was not disclosed in the notice, arrived at Shanghai airport, he called a taxi via the online hailing service Didi, to get to Shanghai railway station. He then took an overnight train to Lanzhou, capital of Northwest China's Gansu Province on February 23, and another train arriving in Zhongwei by early morning of the next day, roughly 1:20 am.

The patient was wearing a mask throughout the journey, only taking it off occasionally when eating meals.

Effectively preventing the inflow of foreign patients infected with the virus entering China has added a new scope to China's prevention and control efforts.  

"We have to be able to locate travelers from epidemic-stricken regions as soon as they set foot on Chinese soil, and implement quarantine measures immediately, which is the most realistic way to deter further infection," said observers, warning "otherwise, it would expose a large loophole in the epidemic prevention and control system."