A laundry worker may have infected around a dozen other people with Covid-19 after contracting the virus from contaminated clothing, Chinese scientists believe.
Wu Zunyou, an epidemiologist from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, is looking into the case of a laundry worker in the city of Shulan in the north-eastern Chinese province of Jilin, according to local media.
The 45-year-old woman reportedly had a lot of close contact with Russian visitors between 8 and 30 April.
It is believed that the woman passed on the virus to her husband, three sisters, and other relatives and contacts of those confirmed cases, according to reports.
Studies have shown that the concentration of the virus can be very high in changing rooms.
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Experts from the National Health Commission and Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention are reportedly trying to establish the source of the infection, which affected a cluster of 13 people in total.
Wu Zunyou said that it is possible the laundry worker is not the source of infection and that getting to the bottom of the case will require a stringent epidemiological investigation and biological analysis.
He added that the woman may have been infected by another carrier whose incubation period was longer or asymptomatic.
However, Wu explained that occasional cluster cases are to be expected: "As long as the cases are found, promptly investigated and tracked, the epidemic can be snuffed out quickly and there should be no outbreak."
He also called on the public to continue taking safety precautions, especially in enclosed spaces.
According to local media, the investigation has so far traced 2,005 people and 290 close contacts have been placed in self-isolation.
Although the virus is believed to have originated from the Chinese city of Wuhan, the country now has a very low rate of infection, according to official government statistics.
Just four people in China tested positive for the disease yesterday, bringing the total number of confirmed infections to 82,933.
A total of 4,633 have died of Covid-19 in the country.
