Source: HangzhouTube, Global Times, China Daily, Xinhua News
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Despite some cases of recovered patients testing positive again for COVID-19, a top expert in Shanghai brushed off the concerns saying there has been no case reported that confirms such patients would transmit the virus to others.
"Based on the national data, no case has been reported that confirms the coronavirus patients who test positive after recovery are infectious," Zhang Weihong, head of the Shanghai COVID-19 medical expert team, told a press conference in Shanghai on Saturday.
Guangdong health authorities announced Tuesday 13 recovered COVID-19 patients tested positive again in later diagnosis, and that about 14 percent of the total recovered patients in Guangdong tested positive later.
There are two possibilities that result in some recovered patients testing negative twice initially but positive after discharge from hospital: one is the sample is taken from patients' laryngeal part of pharynx while the patient is at a low viral load at the critical point, and the other possibility is the sample quality is not good, said Zhang.
Shanghai has made advance plans to extract further samples within two weeks from those recovered patients testing negative for the nucleic acid diagnosis, Zhang said.
Those recovered patients testing positive again will be isolated and kept under medical observation for another 14-days, Zhang said.
"It's still hard to say whether the recovered patients will have further syndromes but I care more about how to solve the problem," noted Zhang.
It's unnecessary to worry about whether the testing is positive or negative, but we do need to be cautious about whether those recovered patients testing positive are infectious, noted Zhang.
Zhejiang Experts Find Virus in Tears
Scientists in Zhejiang have detected novel coronavirus in the tears and conjunctival secretions of an infected patient, according to an announcement from Zhejiang University on Friday.
The announcement revealed that a team of researchers from the university's First Affiliated Hospital led by Shen Ye, an ophthalmology professor, have confirmed that a sample of a patient's tears and conjunctival secretions tested positive for the virus, signaling another new possible way for the contagion to spread.
Shen suggested that given the research findings, it is now imperative for doctors to wear goggles, aside from facial masks, while conducting check-ups on suspected coronavirus patients.
In another development, the Third People's Hospital of Shenzhen in South China's Guangdong province announced on Thursday it detected the novel coronavirus in a patient's saliva.
China's Top Swimmer to Appeal 8-Year Ban
Citing doping control procedures that it said were not properly followed, the Chinese Swimming Association has backed swimmer Sun Yang's appeal of an arbitration court's decision banning him from competition for eight years over a controversial drug test.
Sun, a three-time freestyle Olympic champion, was given an eight-year suspension from competition on Friday by the Lausanne, Switzerland-based Court of Arbitration for Sport. It said Sun was in violation of doping control rules by rejecting a random drug test conducted by International Doping Test and Management on Sept 4, 2018 in his home city Hangzhou.
Following the decision that could end his celebrated career, Sun reiterated his innocence in a social media post. He said he had only refused to complete the test over questions about the testers' eligibility, and he is ready to appeal to a higher court.
"I was shocked by the CAS decision, which I feel angry about and couldn't understand," Sun posted on his Weibo account on Friday evening.
"I have asked my lawyer to appeal the suspension to the Swiss Federal Tribunal. I firmly believe in my innocence. The truth will prevail over lies."
Shortage of Skilled Leaf-Pluckers Affects Tea Trade
In Hangzhou, tea picking in the core production area of West Lake Longjing is normally around mid-to late March, but it is difficult to predict the exact time this year, said Jiang Xinbing, an official with the West Lake Scenic Area Administrative Committee.
"There are more than 6,000 tea farmers in the core area, and every year, more than 10,000 tea-pickers will come from outside Hangzhou to collect the tea leaves," said Jiang. "Now we are concerned about how these tea-pickers can leave their home city and come here."
It is hard to find replacements.
"The tea-pickers are experienced and skilled, have been doing this for many years and are familiar with the tea fields here," Jiang said.
Tea growers have constantly tracked the ongoing situation. Weng Yongxiang, Party secretary of Wengjia village in Longyou county, said tea farmers in his village had contacted their tea-pickers in advance to learn about their local epidemic-control situation.
"Tea farmers are anxious," he said. "The amount of tea leaves picked has a direct impact on the income of each household for the whole year. However, the epidemic prevention and control is still our most important task. Only after the epidemic is brought under control can we look into matters like tea-picking."
Enterprises Embrace Livestream E-Commerce Amid Epidemic
In an effort to cushion the impact of the virus outbreak, traditional retail trade, catering, education training, real estate and other sectors in China are all leveraging livestreaming to expand the online market and open new growth frontiers during the special period.
According to statistics from Taobao Live, the livestreaming unit of China's e-commerce giant Alibaba, since February, the number of live streaming rooms on the new sales channel has doubled year on year, and the number of livestreaming sessions has also increased 110 percent year on year.
On Feb. 10, Taobao also launched a livestreaming project for offline retail stores to power their e-commerce businesses.
Jiang Xinjie, assistant president of Intime Retail (Group) Co., Ltd., a famous department store chain in China, said over 2,000 shopping assistant teams of the company will start livestreaming this year to improve its online marketing capability.
"Livestream e-commerce is not only a choice for traditional shopping malls to deal with emergencies but a way to upgrade their sales model," said Jiang.
For Expats in Zhejiang
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