A woman in Shenzhen was sentenced to 10 months in jail for lying and hiding the details of her traveling that resulted in infecting a person with the novel coronavirus, the medical quarantine of 13 people and imposed self-isolation of more than 100, Shenzhen Economic Daily reported Friday.
The verdict handed out by Nanshan People’s Court on June 5 was the first court sentence related to COVID-19 prevention and control.
The woman, surnamed Yang, and her family drove from Wuhan to Yueyang in Hunan Province, and then took a high-speed train to Shenzhen in the early morning of Jan. 23, when they learned that Wuhan would be locked down hours later.
After having dinner with relatives in Nanshan District, Yang and her husband checked in to a hotel in Nanshan, but they did not tell the truth to the hotel staff about their residence in Wuhan.
Between Jan. 24 and Feb. 3, Yang, during her stay in the hotel, violated rules and frequently visited supermarkets, restaurants and hotels, though she was aware of the COVID-19 prevention rules and restrictions. On Feb. 3, she had a headache and stuffy nose. She hid her travel history, refused a CT screening when seeing a doctor and took a taxi back to the hotel from the hospital.
On the night of Feb. 3, Yang was taken to the University of Hong Kong-Shenzhen Hospital for a nucleic test and was diagnosed with a COVID-19 infection the following day. She was then transferred to the Shenzhen No. 3 People’s Hospital for treatment. Yang’s close contacts, 13 in total, were put into medical quarantine and 138 employees at the hospital (indirect contacts) were self-isolated. On Feb. 7, Yang’s granddaughter was diagnosed with COVID-19 infection as an asymptomatic positive case.
On March 10, Yang accepted investigation by Shahe Police Station after she recovered and was released from quarantine.