Zhejiang confirms imported COVID-19 case

Lishui in East China's Zhejiang province has confirmed an imported case of COVID-19 from Italy, local health authorities reported on Monday.

The 31-year-old female patient surnamed Wang is an overseas Chinese from Qingtian, a county in Lishui famous for its long tradition of local people moving abroad to seek business opportunities.

The patient started to show symptoms, including cough, headache and diarrhea, on Feb 16 and took medicine by herself. On Feb 26, she flew from the Italian city of Milan to China via Moscow, Russia and arrived at Shanghai Pudong International Airport in Shanghai on late Thursday.

On Friday morning, she took a chartered car to Qingtian and was sent to a designated isolation site in the county immediately for medical observation, according to local health administration.

Wang was confirmed to have been infected with the novel coronavirus on Sunday after a positive nucleic acid test.

As of Monday, Zhejiang has reported no new confirmed cases of COVID-19 for nine consecutive days. It has so far reported a total of 1,205 confirmed cases, with 1,050 recovered and discharged from hospitals.

The province lowered its emergency response level for COVID-19 from Level I to II on Monday, with the whole area of Zhejiang designated "low risk" in terms of the epidemic control situation.