Beijing Investigates Traveler Who Disguised Illness on Flight to Beijing

A 37-year-old Chongqing woman who flew into Beijing while already sick with the coronavirus is now under official investigation, local news media reports.

The woman, a long-term resident of Massachusetts surnamed Li, arrived in Beijing on a flight from Los Angeles Mar 12 with her husband and child. Shortly after landing on Mar 13 she tested positive for COVID-19.

Li is being investigated for putting members of the public at unnecessary risk, and her actions may violate provisions of China’s Criminal Law related to impairing the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases, Caixin quoted a city official as saying. 

According to Li's original account, she had visited the hospital in Boston on Mar 3, Mar 5, Mar 10, and Mar 11, and requested a COVID-19 test three times, to no avail. 

However, her actions have been closely scrutinized in the four days since she returned and several media outlets have begun to find holes in her story. The Beijing Daily now reports that she took fever-reducing medicine before boarding in order to beat temperature screenings given in LA. She also checked in to the flight alone and sat in different rows from her husband and son. When asked, said reportedly also stated that she was traveling alone.

One hour into the flight she complained of feeling short of breath and fatigued, but claimed that she had not taken any medicine. She was moved to an isolation area at the back of the plane and given a temperature check, which revealed a slight fever.

Then, two hours before arriving in Beijing, she told flight crew that she had already tested positive to the COVID-19 in Boston, that she had a fever, and that her husband and son were traveling with her.

The Global Times later confirmed with one passenger near Li's original seat said that Li and her family were taken off the plane by the Chinese CDC immediately after landing.

Global Times also said a WeChat group of Massachusetts-based Chinese has been hotly discussing the case. Posters there claim Li is a Biogen employee and that she was was in fact confirmed to be infected in the US. According to the same poster, Li was upset that she was told to do home quarantine instead of being admitted to hospital which prompted her decision to return to Beijing.

Li reportedly attended a leadership conference for Biogen – an American biotech company – in Boston on Feb 26-27, and began to feel sick on Mar 1. According to local news website boston.com, more than half of all current cases in Massachusetts can be traced to the same Biogen meeting, and at least 70 attendees were suspected of having the disease before Li left on her flight. As of now, more than 100 cases in Boston are linked to the meeting, which was attended by 175 company executives.

Li is currently receiving treatment in Beijing while her husband and son are under quarantine, and 59 of the passengers from Li's flight are also being monitored. 

READ: No Foreigners Among Beijing's 31 Imported Cases So Far

Images: Avel Chuklanov on Unsplash