China has reported 15 new COVID-19 cases, including 12asymptomatic infections, the health authorities said on Thursday, as the masstesting for the deadly coronavirus began for the 11 million people in the cityof Wuhan, amid apprehensions about a second wave of the pandemic.
According to China’s National Health Commission (NHC), thethree new cases are domestically transmitted, with two reported in Liaoningprovince and one in Jilin province.
As of Wednesday, the overall confirmed cases on the mainlandhad reached 82,929, including 101 patients who were still being treated.Overall, the death toll in China stood at 4,633, the NHC said.
Following a spike in cases, officials in Jilin city of thenortheast China’s Jilin province have adopted a number of more stringentmeasures to curb the spread of COVID-19.
Gai Dongping, vice-mayor of Jilin, told reporters onWednesday that the city had reported a total of 21 community cases, with twoasymptomatic patients, since the first cluster infection was reported a weekago.
“The current outbreak is very serious and complex andposes a major risk of further spread. In order to prevent and stem the spreadof the epidemic, the Jilin epidemic prevention and control group has decided toimplement control measures in the urban area of Jilin,” she was quoted assaying by the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post.
The NHC said that 712 people with asymptomatic infectionswere under medical observation. This included 574 in Hubei province and itscapital Wuhan.
The local health commission in Wuhan said no new confirmedcase of coronavirus was reported on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Wuhan began a massive campaign on Wednesday totest all of its over 11 million people.
The tests to be completed by May 20 began as a top healthofficial warned that China’s risk of COVID-19 cluster infections caused by thesporadic cases cannot be ignored, although the epidemic is in a generallystable state in the country at the moment.
The newly reported six confirmed domestically transmittedcases in the Chinese mainland on Tuesday were all related to previous clusterinfections, Song Shuli, a spokesperson for the NHC told the media here inBeijing on Wednesday.
“We need to stay alert and put in place measures forregular epidemic response to resolutely prevent new outbreaks,” state-runXinhua news agency quoted her as saying.
The well-publicised testing in Wuhan came as a surprise asit was being done more than a month after the 76-day lockdown was lifted fromthe city on April 8. China has also opened up in a big way all over thecountry.
Beijing has also announced plans to hold the annualparliament session of the National People’s Congress on May 22.
As of Wednesday, the death toll in Hubei, which was one ofthe first epicentres, stood at 4,512, including 3,869 in Wuhan.
Hubei has reported 68,134 confirmed COVID-19 cases in total,including 50,339 in Wuhan.
Globally, the death toll from the coronavirus has gone up to297,197 and over 4.3 million people have been infected by COVID-19, accordingto Johns Hopkins University data.