The newly detected COVID-19 patient in Guangzhou, South China's Guangdong Province, was found to be associated with an imported case as the genetic sequencing of the patient is highly homologous to that of an imported case reported on Saturday, said an official from Guangzhou Health Commission Sunday.
The patient, a 42-year-old female surnamed Xu, worked in an isolation hotel in Guangzhou's Yuexiu district for food delivery and room cleaning.
She tested positive for COVID-19 during a routine nucleic acid test in the hotel on Saturday.
Considering Xu's genetic sequencing results and epidemiological investigation, she was highly likely to have been infected when she was accidentally exposed to the virus while collecting garbage on Wednesday, said Chen Bin, deputy director of Guangzhou Health Commission, at a press conference on Sunday.
Experts' judgement showed that the risk of community transmission was low, Chen said.
Xu has been living in the hotel since Tuesday, and the last five routine nucleic acid tests on Saturday were all negative.
The hotel has 56 staff members and 103 people living in isolation. Since August, seven imported cases have been reported in the hotel.