For the first time in more than a month, a person in Wuhan, China, where the global pandemic is believed to have originated, has tested positive for coronavirus.
Local health officials said the patient had previously been asymptomatic, the National Health Commission reported Sunday.
It's unclear how the man contracted the disease, which had seemingly died out in the area, but his wife and several other people in the community are being tested.
The lockdown in Wuhan was lifted in early April, more than two months after the city was shut off in a failed attempt to stop transmission. Trains and flights resumed and healthy residents were allowed to leave for the first time in more than 75 days.
At the time, Wuhan accounted for more than 75% of the total cases in China.
Despite unsubstantiated claims that coronavirus was created in a lab, China has been viewed by health officials as a relatively successful lockdown.
Health officials reported 14 new positive cases Sunday, the highest daily total since April 28. Eleven of those were in Shulan, which was returned to lockdown in an attempt to stop the spread. Students who had gone back to school have been told to stay home and all non-essential travel has been banned.
The Shulan outbreak, which has raised the city's risk level to "high," has been linked to one woman who appears to have spread coronavirus to family members, according to health officials.
Twenty asymptomatic cases were also discovered, the National Health Commission said Sunday, up from 15 the day before and the highest total since May 1.
The coronavirus outbreak has now hit almost 83,000 people in China, with more than 4,600 deaths reported, according to health officials.
