Earlier this month, an infected laundry worker in Shulan city was found to have spread the virus to 11 others.

Shulan was declared a high-risk area and has entered a state of lockdown - all outbound transport has been stopped.

Several cases were later recorded in Jilin city and the province has now seen a total of 133 confirmed locally transmitted cases, according to state media.

There are now fears that the province could emerge as the centre of new infections in China - even as life starts to go back to normal for the rest of the country.