New imported case number continues steady climb

A total of 67 new confirmed cases of coronavirus infection and 6 deaths were reported on Wednesday on the Chinese mainland, bringing the two numbers up to 81,285 and 3,287 respectively, statistics from the National Health Commission released on Thursday show.

All new cases were imported from abroad. Shanghai accounted for 18, the Inner Mongolia autonomous region had 12, Guangdong province had 11 and Beijing reported six, along with six in Fujian province, three in Shaanxi province, two each in Tianjin municipality, Zhejiang province, Jiangsu province and Yunnan province, and one each in Shanxi province, Jilin province and Henan province.

All six new fatalities occurred in Hubei province, and another 58 new suspected cases were reported Wednesday, all imported from overseas. A total of 159 people are still suspected of being infected with the virus, and there were 3,947 confirmed cases across the country.

On Wednesday, 401 people were discharged from hospital after recovery, while the number of severe cases decreased by 164 to 1,235. A total of 74,051 people had been discharged from hospital after recovery across the country as of Wednesday at midnight.

Health authorities on the mainland have traced 695,305 people who have had close contact with patients. Among them, 721 were discharged from medical observation on Wednesday, with 14,714 others still under medical observation.

By the end of Wednesday, 410 confirmed cases including four deaths had been reported in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, 30 confirmed cases in the Macao SAR and 235 in Taiwan province, including two deaths. Cumulatively, 106 patients in Hong Kong, 10 in Macao and 29 in Taiwan have been discharged after recovery.

Hubei, the hardest-hit province on the Chinese mainland, reported zero new confirmed cases and suspected cases on Wednesday.

As of Wednesday, a total of 67,801 confirmed cases and 3,169 deaths have been reported in Hubei. It still had 3,431 confirmed cases, including 1,201 in severe condition.

The province also saw 391 patients discharged from hospital after recovery on Wednesday, bringing the total number of discharged patients in the province to 61,201.