Chinese Police Force Family Into Coronavirus Quarantine

⁣In this cell-phone footage, validated by AP, officials in hazmat suits forcibly evicting a man and a woman from their apartment, followed by a man resisting eviction and eventually being carried out in Kunshan, China, Monday, Feb. 3.

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READ MORE: In the video, the people can be seen being dragged away by officials in protective suits.

Jiangsu Communication Broadcasting Station, an official provincial media outlet, on Wednesday published an article with photos of a woman and a man, who appeared to be wearing the same clothes as the people in the video, being questioned by local law enforcement officials in protective suits.

The article said the two, both using the family name Dong, had returned to their home in Kunshan, Jiangsu Province, from Hubei Province, of which Wuhan is the capital and where the coronavirus epidemic has been the most severe.

According to the article, they traveled despite being required to quarantine themselves at home, and on Feb. 3 they were taken away by local epidemic prevention personnel.

Provinces and cities across China are requiring anybody who comes from Hubei province to self-quarantine for 14 days. Experts believe that's how long it could take for symptoms to appear.

The death toll on mainland China from the coronavirus outbreak has now reached 811, surpassing the number of deaths caused by the SARS pandemic of 2002-03, Chinese officials said Sunday.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is believed to have killed 774 people and sickened nearly 8,100 in China and the special administrative region of Hong Kong.

The commission reported that new coronavirus infection cases dropped Saturday for the first time since Feb. 1, to 2,656, for a total of 37,198.

Millions of people remain under lockdown in Hubei, the landlocked province at the center of the coronavirus outbreak where residents are complaining of food shortages.

Among the new fatalities are a U.S. citizen in Wuhan, China — the epicenter of the outbreak — officials at the American Embassy in Beijing said Saturday.

The embassy said that the 60-year-old American died Feb. 6. A Japanese citizen is also reported to have died in Wuhan of viral pneumonia, likely caused by the coronavirus, although that has not been confirmed.