Infection clusters loophole exposed

COVID-19 outbreaks in prisons, hospitals, factories pose new threat

China is preparing to guard against more possible outbreaks as new coronavirus infections have been reported at congregated facilities, including prisons, hospitals, factories and senior care homes, revealing loopholes and posing new challenges to epidemic control work.

The National Health Commission announced that new confirmed infections reached 889 on Thursday, and regions outside Central China’s Hubei Province, the outbreak epicenter, recorded 258 new cases, compared with 56 new cases reported the previous day.

The sudden increase in new cases was mainly due to new outbreaks in five prisons in Shandong, Zhejiang and Hubei provinces. Shandong reported 202 new cases, 200 of which came from Rencheng prison in Jining while Zhejiang had 28 new cases including 27 from the Shilifeng prison.

New cases in these two provinces sparked concerns over transmission of the virus rising with cluster cases.

The Hubei health authorities noted that it received a handwritten report from the prison department Thursday night as there was no internet-based data report

ing system from the prison system in Hubei. After careful verification, the commission added those cases to the overall data. In Hubei, 230 infection cases in Wuhan Women’s Prison and 41 in Hanjin prison in Jinzhou have been reported.

Full-scale probe

The outbreaks in prisons sent a fresh warning to China despite positive signs in the past two weeks. Those infections occurred in relatively isolated and clean environments, showing that people cannot relax their vigilance in epidemic control work, medical experts said.

At least 11 officials were deposed on Friday in the three provinces as they failed to fulfill their duties to control outbreaks in prisons.

The Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission of the Communist Party of China has formed an investigation team to launch a fullscale probe into the outbreak in the Shandong prison. Two prison officials in Zhejiang have been removed from their posts, and one police officer was under investigation. The director of Wuhan Women’s Prison in Hubei was removed.

The outbreaks were mainly due to the lack of strict management measures, a medical expert who preferred not to be named told the Global Times on Friday. “Don’t think that they [prisoners] have no connection with the outside world. The virus could still be transmitted in some places that are relatively isolated,” he said.

In addition to prisons, places such as senior homes, welfare homes for children and mental health hospitals have become vulnerable to the spread of virus.

“With insufficient awareness of enhanced protection, clusters of infection cases [in those places] are also very likely,” Yang Zhanqiu, deputy director of the pathogen biology department at Wuhan University, said.

A prison officer in Shilifeng prison had been to the epicenter Wuhan from January 14 to 19, but he intentionally hid his travel history and went back to work until he was diagnosed with COVID-19 on January 29, media reports said.

It also reminds us to pay attention to not only transmission routes via respiratory droplets but also the flow of infectious sources, said Wang Lixiang, director of the emergency medical center of the General Hospital of Chinese People’s Armed Police Forces.

However, there is no need to overreact to some clusters of infections, Wang said.

High alert

Recent clusters of infections sparked new fears, while some regions strive to resume work after the outbreak practically shut down factories and caused pain for the world’s factory and global supply chain.

A factory with more than 400 employees which manufactures titanium dioxide in Chongqing was forced to shut down after a cluster infection, with three people confirmed infected with COVID-19 and over 100 employees sent to quarantine, media reported. A Beijing hospital reported 36 cases on Thursday, a sharp increase from nine cases from two weeks earlier.

“For places with large-scale gatherings or with high population densities, we must admit that epidemic prevention and control work remains difficult while being highly alert,” said Zhang Yiwu, a professor at Peking University.