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A top member of Beijing’s coronavirus expert team has alerted authorities that the country is facing a second coronavirus outbreak due to the increasing number of infections detected among new arrivals from abroad.

Her statement came as life in Wuhan, the former epicenter of the virus, gradually come back to normal following a two-month draconian lockdown.

Professor Li Lanjuan said she was ‘very worried that imported cases could trigger another large-scale epidemic in our country’.

Prof Li, 73, told China News today that the control and prevention of imported cases was an ‘arduous’ task for medical workers.

She said: ‘This requires us to continue to intensify our efforts and work tirelessly to prevent the coronavirus pneumonia epidemic from spreading in other cities.’

Prof Li has led her medical team to fight the virus in Wuhan for more than 50 days.

She told reporters in Wuhan: ‘Cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Hangzhou have frequent international communications. [I am] very worried that imported cases could trigger another large-scale epidemic in our country.’

She also demanded officials identify those who were struck down by the virus but have not been officially diagnosed. She warned that they could re-ignite the epidemic.

Meanwhile, Prof Li’s statement came after health officials reported the country’s first case of someone who is believed to have contracted coronavirus from another person returning from abroad.

Doctors in Guangzhou, the provincial capital of Guangdong, diagnosed a coronavirus patient who fell ill after having close contact with a person entering China from Turkey, Dailymail reported.

This is the first coronavirus case in the country with a direct link to an imported case. The Guangzhou Municipal Health Commission called it ‘a case related to an imported case’ in a statement yesterday.