Location Shanghai China
#15,670
While the U.S. reported their first confirmed UK Variant case just two days ago, and reports from other countries have only been trickling in for a week or so, China's CDC Weekly reports they detected their first instance more than two weeks ago, in a 23 y.o. female returning to Shanghai from the UK.
China, which has had to deal primarily with the original Asia lineage of the virus - a strain that is considered less transmissible than the D614G variants that appeared last winter in Europe - is understandably concerned over the introduction of an even more transmissible variant.
I've only posted some excerpts from the full report (link h/t Sharon Sanders at FluTrackers). Follow the link to read the report in its entirety.
The First Case of New Variant COVID-19 Originating in the United Kingdom Detected in a Returning Student — Shanghai Municipality, China, December 14, 2020
Hongyou Chen1,&; Xiaoyan Huang1,&; Xiang Zhao2; Yang Song2; Peter Hao3; Hui Jiang1; Xi Zhang1; Chen Fu1, , View author affiliations
Author Affiliations
1. Shanghai Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Shanghai, China
2. National Institute for Viral Disease Control and Prevention, China CDC, Beijing, China
3. Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, China
Corresponding author:
Chen Fu, fuchen@scdc.sh.cn
Online Date: December 30 2020
doi: 10.46234/ccdcw2020.270
On December 14, 2020, a 23-year-old female returning from the United Kingdom (UK) via airplane was tested by the laboratory of Shanghai Customs using nose swab to test for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). At 20:30 on December 14, Shanghai CDC received notification from the Shanghai Customs that the patient tested positive for COVID-19. By 22:00, the patient was transported by ambulance from the isolation point to the fever clinic of Jiading District Central Hospital. Due to travel history from the UK and abnormalities in nucleic acid test results, the hospital organized a consultation with experts and formed a recommendation to transfer the patient to Fudan University’s Public Health Clinical Center for further diagnosis and treatment, which was carried out the following day. On December 15, Jiading District CDC retested using a nasopharyngeal swab sample and the nucleic acid result was positive for COVID-19.
An epidemiological investigation revealed that the patient had a negative COVID-19 test result on December 12, 2020, two days before her flight to return to China. According to her statement, she had no exposure to symptomatic individuals and had not purchased or been exposed to frozen food products or raw meat. While remaining in the UK, the patient described running in a nearby park without wearing a mask and taking off her mask to eat and drink while waiting to board the plane. These are all potential situations for exposure, especially with 1.86 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 having been reported in the UK as of December 15, 2020. At the time of case report, the patient was diagnosed as a mild case according to the epidemiological investigation, symptoms and laboratory test.
(SNIP)
Several control measures have been implemented in the response to this case. The patient has been transferred to the designated medical institution for isolation and treatment. Due to the closed-loop management upon passenger’s arrival at the airport, close contact investigation has been initiated according to national and municipal work plans: 1) close contacts currently include passengers with seats in the same row, passengers within 3 rows of seats of the patient, and flight attendants providing cabin services to that section; 2) medical personnel at the point of isolation and at the central hospital are not deemed closed contacts due to the effective personal protective measures; and 3) other possible close contacts are being investigated. Specific venues associated with the patient are being comprehensively disinfected. Experts have been assembled to supervise relevant work including disinfection, personal protection, and nosocomial infection control in areas in the medical facilities.
