A 24-year-old female kindergarten teacher was reported as a local asymptomatic case of COVID-19 on Dec 16 in the port city Suifenhe, Heilongjiang province, the provincial health commission said.

The woman was found positive on Tuesday as testing was conducted on close contacts under quarantine and then was diagnosed as asymptomatic, the commission said.

All her close contacts have been quarantined and relevant departments have undertaken disinfection procedures and have closed the places where the woman visited.

Elsewhere, the health commission of Jinan, Shandong province, issued a statement on Wednesday, announcing that an airline pilot with an imported case that was reported on Monday in Chengdu, Sichuan province, had no contact with the passengers and staff members of Jinan Airport during his stay at the airport.

The patient, surnamed Gao, a 26-year-old pilot for Sichuan Airlines, was on a cargo flight from Los Angeles to Chengdu, on Nov 29 and tested negative during quarantine in neighboring Renshou county of Meishan.

He piloted a round-trip passenger flight from Chengdu to Jinan, Shandong province, on Dec 9 and continued his quarantine in Renshou until Saturday.

According to the statement, the flight arrived in Jinan Airport at 9:41 am and left after about two and a half hours at 12:09 pm.

During the period, nobody on the plane other than the pilot deplaned for refueling. He wore a mask, the statement said, adding that the cockpit is isolated from the cabin.

Some passengers have been quarantined, and the work of tracing the other passengers is underway.