Cases in mainland China have been dwindling since March, but the country faces a second wave of infections brought in from overseas, with health officials reporting nearly 1,000 imported cases in total.
China’s health authorities reported 32 new cases nationwide, all of which were imported.
There were also 30 new asymptomatic infections, health officials said, bringing the national total to 1,033. Around a quarter of the current total of asymptomatic cases were also imported from overseas.
Last week, China began disclosing the number of asymptomatic cases for the first time, after growing public concerns over the potential of “silent” carriers to spread the disease.
Fears have also been growing over a potential resurgence in the epicentre of Wuhan, where the virus was first detected late last year.
After a number of asymptomatic cases were confirmed in the central Chinese city, local authorities revoked the “epidemic-free” status of 45 residential compounds yesterday.
To date, 81,740 people have been infected and 3,331 have been killed by the deadly virus in China, with the vast majority in Wuhan and the surrounding Hubei province.
Meanwhile, the global death toll from the pandemic is close to 75,000 as the virus ravages numerous countries in Europe and the US. The number of infections globally stands close to 1.35 million.
The US recorded 1,150 coronavirus deaths in 24 hours, Johns Hopkins University said late yesterday, pushing the country’s toll further above the 10,000 mark reached earlier in the day.
According to Johns Hopkins’ running tally, there are more than 367,000 cases of new coronavirus in the United States – including in excess of 30,000 new cases in 24 hours – with total deaths at 10,876.
The US has by far the most number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the world. The number of deaths recorded since the start of the pandemic has for the past several days increased by at least 1,000 per day and is gradually approaching the number of deaths in Italy (16,523) and Spain (13,005).