Beijing reports four newly confirmed COVID-19 cases and 10 silent coronavirus carriers on Friday. Photo:VCG

A close contact of a confirmed case of COVID-19 was widely praised by Chinese netizens as a “good neighbor of China” on Tuesday after he stayed in his car for self-isolation for more than 10 hours. 

Knowing that he was a close contact, staying in the car allowed his community to check the epidemic situation immediately and after nucleic acid tests were conducted overnight, the community lifted restrictions in just 14 hours, and residents’ life quickly returned to normal.

According to Beijing Daily, the close contact, surnamed Zhang, lives in Changping District, Beijing. He has been working in Beijing for four years as an interior designer. On April 22, Zhang had close contact with construction workers. After learning that he was a close contact on April 23, he immediately reported it to the epidemic prevention team of his community, but stayed in his car and did not enter the community.

“I learned that the chief in charge of the team was confirmed as having COVID-19 and I guessed that all those workers must be close contacts. But I didn’t know if the workers had been infected, so I didn't go home because I didn't want to cause anyone any trouble,” Zhang said. 

After learning that he needed isolation treatment, Zhang contacted his roommate to pack his luggage and send it to the front gate of the community. He picked up the luggage by himself after his roommate had left, without any contact with others.

The report sparked heated discussion among netizens, with many praising him as a “good neighbor of China.”

Zhang’s fever has gone and he is recovering well with no other symptoms.

Thanks to Zhang’s timely and decisive action to stop the spread of the virus, thousands of families in his community were able to avoid home quarantine. Nucleic acid samples taken from the residents and the environment of the community were all negative.

The epidemic prevention and control situation in Beijing has become challenging, and there are multiple transmission chains. On Tuesday, there were 46 new local confirmed COVID-19 cases in Beijing, including 42 confirmed cases and four asymptomatic cases.