Police from Jinjiang in East China's Fujian province are further investigating a man surnamed Zhang and his family members who returned home from Wuhan, the center of the novel coronavirus epidemic, but lied to village officials, saying they had come back from the Philippines, after they were detected to have pneumonia caused by the novel coronavirus.

Zhang, in his 30s, his wife, mother and son returned home by train on Jan 20, and they lived together with Zhang's father and brother in Jiapai village in Yinglin township, according to a report on Beijing Youth Daily on Wednesday.

Zhang, who had no symptoms at the time, refused to tell villagers he had returned home from Wuhan and attended a series of folk events and banquets to celebrate the Lunar New Year on Jan 21 and 22. The folk events and banquets saw participation by about 3,000 local villagers.

Zhang once lied to village officials that they returned from the Philippines when the latter arrived at their home for an investigation.

Zhang and his family members were found to have come back from Wuhan when the local township government and the village committee launched a further investigation in the entire township after the lockdown of Wuhan.

Zhang and his family members who returned from Wuhan were immediately required to be isolated for medical observation. And they were quickly diagnosed to have pneumonia caused by the novel coronavirus on Feb 1, after they developed the symptoms of fever and coughing.

Zhang and his three family members became the first group of novel coronavirus pneumonia patients in Yinglin township.

Zhang, his wife, mother and son have now been in isolated wards for treatment. All are in stable condition.

As result, seven villagers who had close contact with Zhang and his family have been detected to have pneumonia caused by the novel coronavirus and another two became suspected cases later.

A total of 91 people in the village who once had close contact with Zhang and his family have been isolated for medical observation. And local medical institutes have also implemented medical follow-up on other 3,557 villagers.

Meanwhile five township officials and village cadres have been held accountable for their misconduct as they violated relevant regulations and rules to approve the mass folk activities and banquets organized in the village after the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in Wuhan.