Strange Cases of Dongguan Outbreak, Two People Infected in 14s
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A new case of confirmed Covid-19 local infection in Dongguan was reported in June 18th. Ms. Li, 30 years old, who is living in the Baiyue Shangcheng district was confirmed as the patient Zero for this round of outbreak in Dongguan.
In June 20th, another case of local infection was reported in Dongguan. Jia, a 19-year-old student from Xinhua College (Dongguan campus) became the second confirmed person infected with the current local Covid-19 outbreak.
And then in June 21, a third patient was reported, his name is Jing and he is Jia's schoolmate aged 20.
How did they get infected?
According to their movement tracking reports provided by the city's epidemic prevention and control center, Ms. Li and her husband Xiao (who has also been diagnosed in Shenzhen) dined at the McDonald's restaurant in Xinghe city square, and at around the same time, Jia and Jing were also present at the restaurant and got infected.
What still buffles health staff is the fact that Ms. Li's other family members' nucleic acid tests have all returned negative beside being closer to them for a longer period of time than that of Jia and Jing.
Furthermore, there is no evidence that Ms. Li had physical contact with Jia and Jing.
On June 24, Zhang Qiaoli, deputy director and spokesperson of Dongguan Health Bureau, announced that Ms. Li's family members in Dongguan have all tested negative 4 times already.
Both Li's closest contacts, her young daughter and an elderly mother-in-law have tested negative. On the contrary, two strangers at McDonald's got infected.
Answering this question, Luo Dong, deputy director of Dongguan CDC, said that all the three confirmed cases in Dongguan were infected with delta variant strains.
The existing research data in China and abroad showed that delta variant strains have higher transmission rates, short incubation period, high viral load and rapid disease development.
For instance, the first four infections in Guangzhou were revealed after the Guangzhou Police completed contact-tracing and it was concluded that it only took 14 seconds for infection to pass from the third patient to the fourth one without physical touch.
Luo Dong concluded that "On the night of June 12 at the McDonald's restaurant, it may be that Li's viral load was the highest."
He added that at present, the research on Delta mutant is still in progress and scientists have not fully understood it. As far as he understands, the viral load theory may be the reason why the two students were infected.
Concerning why the closest people in her life weren't infected, he said:
“This is really difficult to say, and there is no final conclusion. We need to closely observe her family."
On the afternoon of June 25th, 436 key people who visited the McDonald's in Xinghe city square in Machong were identified through the tracking of their consumption records and video monitoring. All these people were subjected to nucleic acid testing and have tested negative for Covid-19 several times since then.
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