A woman who does not know she brings COVID-19 has caused at least 71 people infected with the virus. It is said to have happened after she uses a lift in her apartment block where she stays.
The woman recently just returned home in Heilongjiang province, China. It is believed that she returns home after a trip to the United States on March 19.
Before this, there are no new COVID-19 cases reported in Heilongjiang province for eight days. According to Metro UK, she was not having any symptoms and even tested negative when she returned from the trip.
Although tested negative, she was told to quarantine herself at home. The woman was said to not use the lift when there are people in it. But, her downstairs neighbor enters it shortly after she left the lift.
On March 26, the neighbor’s mother and her partner stayed for one night at the apartment. Two days later, the pair went to a party with a group of people.
Then, a guy in the party suffered a stroke and was taken to the hospital on April 2. His two sons visited him in the hospital and the stroke guy was said to shared the same medical team and items with other patients on the ward.
He then moved to the second hospital. Later, the stroke guy and his two sons tested positive COVID-19 and even have infected 28 people in the first hospital and another 20 patients in the second hospital.
Scientists believe that the apartment lift where the woman used was contaminated with the virus.
Back to the woman’s neighbor, it is reported that her mother’s partner developed COVID-19 symptoms on April 7 and the family later tested positive.
The woman was tested for the virus again and was found to have antibodies, which is a sign where she had previously been infected with the virus.
“We believe (the woman) was an asymptomatic carrier and that (the neighbor) was infected by contact with surfaces in the elevator in the building where they both lived,” said the researcher.
Source: Metro UK