Photo: Yang Hui/GT

 

A laundry worker in Northeast China's Jilin Province may have infected a dozen others with the coronavirus after she was infected by contaminated clothes during her work, said epidemiologist.

Research has shown the concentration of the virus in change rooms can be very high, and it's possible the laundry worker was infected by the clothes she was washing, Wu Zunyou, an epidemiologist from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said during a live-streaming interview with China Central Television late Monday. 

The 45-year-old woman allegedly worked at a laundry service for a local public security bureau in Shulan where officers had close contact with visitors from Russia between April 8 and 30. 

It is still not known if the woman was infected by the same version of coronavirus as the one circulated in Russia, and an analysis of virus's genotype is needed, Wu said. 

The virus has now spread from the woman to her husband, three sisters, other family members and close contacts of those confirmed cases, according to the local health authority on Sunday.

Experts and epidemiologists from the National Health Commission and Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention are trying to determine the source of infection of a cluster of 13 people who have tested positive for the virus. 

Wu said the laundry worker might not be the source of infection, and determining the source will require thorough epidemiological investigation and biological analysis. 

While Wu said it's possible the laundry worker was infected by another coronavirus carrier whose incubation period was much longer or was asymptomatic. 

"If this is the case, it is very difficult to judge who passed it to whom." 

While people are concerned the cluster of people infected could cause another wave of the epidemic, China's CDC epidemiologist said occasional clusters are to be expected.

 "As long as the cases are found, timely investigated and tracked, the epidemic can be extinguished quickly, and there should be no outbreak," Wu said.

The epidemiologist warned the public to continue to take precautions, especially in crowds and enclosed spaces. 

On Monday, Shulan declared a full-scale "wartime" control mode in response to clustered infections where 13 confirmed cases reported. The citywide investigation of close contacts has traced 2,005 people, 290 close contacts have been located and quarantined.