New | Pneumonic plague quarantine lifted in Gansu after no new cases reported
Fear of pneumonic plague in the old town section of a Gansu town, where 30,000 live, proves unfounded as no new cases appear
A guesthouse employee in Gansu province can finally go home to her family today, as the quarantine that sealed off parts of the city where she stayed for eight days after a man had died from pneumonic plague was lifted at midnight last night.
“[I was] thrilled to learn that the quarantine will end tonight. [I] can finally get out of here and be with my family again. I haven’t seen my daughter for a long time,” the 28-year-old employee, surnamed Zhang, told the South China Morning Post yesterday afternoon.
About 30,000 people living in the old town section of Yumen, where the plague victim was hospitalised, were not allowed to leave the area since the man died last week on Wednesday. Officials were trying to prevent any spread of the deadly disease.
Other areas under quarantine included Chijin town and one of its villages about 25km from Yumen, where the victim lived and was infected, as well as a nearby pasture.
With no further cases reported, Yumen officials lifted the quarantine in all areas, the Gansu Health and Famiily Planning Commission’s website said today.
Zhang said she was horrified when she first heard of the plague and the quarantine that followed. “I was afraid that I would be trapped here and get infected,” she said.
The quarantine had caused her great trouble, she said, as she lives 90km away with her husband and six-year-old daughter. In Zhang’s absence, the girl was sent to her grandmother’s home.