An entire Chinese soccer team consisting of 32 female players was quarantined at an Australian hotel amid fears that their presence could lead to an outbreak in the country.

According to the reports, the soccer players arrived in Brisbane on Wednesday morning following the Chinese Football Association’s decision to move the qualifying matches overseas due to the coronavirus outbreak in China.

However, the entire team was put under lockdown as they were stationed in the city of Wuhan just days before flying to the Brisbane hotel.

While the team arrived in Australia on a flight from Shanghai, stricter regulations forced them to face isolation due to their stay at Wuhan one week prior to their arrival.

According to the updated regulations on the matter, all persons who had been in Wuhan prior to their arrival in Australia have to be isolated for at least 14 days.

“Anyone who has been in contact with a confirmed case must self-isolate in their homes,” Dr. Jeannette Young, the chief health officer, said.

The team’s isolation followed shortly after Wuhan’s mayor, Zhou Xianwang, confessed that the local authorities haven’t released all of the relevant information about the outbreak “in time.”

According to Mr. Zhou, some five million Wuhan residents have fled the city before it was quarantined, meaning that the virus could have easily spread to other parts of China.

As for the reason behind withholding critical information, the mayor has claimed he wasn’t authorized to reveal the true extent of the crisis by those above him.

“On one hand, we did not reveal [everything] in time; on the other, we did not use effective information to improve our work to a satisfactory level,” Zhou said in an interview.

“Regarding the untimely disclosure, I hope everyone can understand. [The virus] is a contagious disease. Contagious diseases have relevant law and information needs to be disclosed according to law.”

The mayor also went on to claim that he couldn’t reveal the information because he wasn’t authorized to do so.

“As [the leader of] a local government, after I receive the information, I can only release it after being authorized. [Many people] could not understand this at the time.”

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