A joint inspection team went on Feb 26 to Hubei province, the center of the novel coronavirus outbreak, to investigate the case of an infected former prisoner who came to Beijing after being released, according to a statement from the Ministry of Justice.

The team is composed of the Political and Legal Affairs Commission of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, the Ministry of Justice, the Supreme People's Procuratorate and the Ministry of Public Security.

The Xinyijiayuan community of Chongwai street in Beijing's Dongcheng district reported a confirmed case on Feb 24. According to a notice issued by the community's residents' committees on Feb 26, the female patient came to Beijing from Wuhan, the capital city of Hubei, on Feb 22 and had a fever in Wuhan on Feb 18. She was quarantined on the day she arrived in Beijing. Three of her relatives have been placed under intensive quarantine and medical observation.

It went viral that the infected person was an ex-convict returning from Wuhan, and her family in Beijing drove to Wuhan to pick her up after she was released from prison earlier. The public questioned how a person confirmed with the virus could return to Beijing on her own, because Wuhan is strictly implementing a closure policy since Jan 23.

The Hubei provincial prison administration staff said on Feb 26 that prisoners would be released normally in accordance with the law after finishing their sentence, according to a Beijing News report.

The report also pointed out that several prisoners had been released and left Wuhan during February. According to Aidujingshi, the official WeChat account of the public security bureau of Huanggang's Qichun county, Hubei, on Feb 11, a convicted felon was released from prison in Wuhan and sent home by the police in Qichun. Changjiang Daily also reported that the people's court of Hongshan district, Wuhan, took two routes to Hanchuan and Daye in Hubei province to send three released prisoners home.