Man who spent 21 days in quarantine, tested negative 9 times still brought COVID-19 to China

A man who completed 21 days of mandatory quarantine upon returning to China from overseas has been identified as the likely source of a new outbreak, raising questions over the sustainability of the country's stringent zero-COVID-19 strategy.

The fresh outbreak in Fujian province on China's southeastern coast has infected more than 60 people, including 15 elementary school pupils. It emerged just two weeks after China contained its worst coronavirus flareup in more than a year, highlighting the increasing challenge posed by the highly contagious Delta variant -- even to a country with some of the world's strictest, most far-reaching containment measures. The latest infections were first detected in two young brothers during a routine COVID-19 test at a elementary school in Xianyou county, Putian city, on Thursday. Another student and three parents tested positive the next day, the Putian municipal government said at a press conference Friday. Experts advising the government have pointed to one of the parents -- a father who recently returned from Singapore -- as the likely source of the outbreak, despite the man having completed a lengthy quarantine on arrival in China. The man arrived in Xiamen, a major coastal hub in Fujian, on August 4, where he underwent 14 days of compulsory hotel quarantine. He spent another 7 days in centralized quarantine at a designated location in Xianyou, before returning home for a further week of health monitoring, according to the Putian government.