Two family cases of coronavirus reported in Harbin

Two novel coronavirus infections in family clusters were reported in Harbin, capital city of Northeast China's Heilongjiang province, on Saturday.

A college student and his four family members contracted the virus on Jan 30 after a family gathering. The four includes his two grandparents, father and cousin.

The student was infected after a dinner with his former classmate, who returned home from a university in Wuhan, Hubei province on Jan 18. He then joined a family gathering on Jan 24 with the other eight family members together.

Another family infection also happened during a family gathering. On Jan 24, a woman surnamed Lyv joined her family gathering with her husband, mother, son, daughter and two grandchildren in Harbin.

Three days later, Lyv, her husband and son drove to Lanxi county in Suihua city for another family gathering that brought 10 people together.

Lyv developed symptoms on Jan 27 and was confirmed to have the novel coronavirus on Jan 30.

Her husband and granddaughter were later infected, and her mother, son, daughter and grandson have been classified as suspected cases.

"Now the situation in our province is still very serious, we must continue to strengthen the prevention and control," said Zhang Qingwei, Party secretary of Heilongjiang province. "If civil servants are found to have joined in any gathering, they will be dismissed, and leading cadres in will be removed from their posts immediately in the same case."

As of Sunday morning, Heilongjiang had confirmed a total of 95 cases of novel coronavirus, including 13 severe cases and two deaths.