46 new COVID-19 cases on mainland; all but 12 imported

The Chinese mainland reported 46 new confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus and zero deaths on Wednesday, bringing the two numbers to 82,341 and 3,342 respectively, statistics from the National Health Commission show on Thursday.

There were also another four new suspected cases reported Wednesday -- three of them came from abroad while Beijing reported one local suspected case, the commission said. A total of 63 people are still suspected of being infected with the virus, and there are 1,107 confirmed cases across the country.

For the newly confirmed cases, 34 were imported from abroad while the southern province of Guangdong reported five local cases, the northeastern province of Heilongjiang reported four and Beijing reported three respectively.

As of Wednesday, China had a total of 1,534 confirmed imported cases, with 636 of them cured and discharged from hospitals, and 46 still in severe condition.

Regarding asymptomatic cases, the official data showed there were 64 new such cases reported on Wednesday, three of which were imported from abroad. Six asymptomatic cases were confirmed on Wednesday, with two of them coming from abroad. A total of 1,032 asymptomatic infected patients, including 217 from abroad, are still under medical observation. Forty-nine such patients were released from observation on Wednesday.

On Wednesday, 76 people were discharged from hospitals after recovery, while the number of severe cases decreased by 18 to 95. A total of 77,892 people had been discharged from hospitals after recovery as of Wednesday.

Health authorities on the mainland have traced 722,007 people with close contact with confirmed patients. Among them, 521 were discharged from medical observation Wednesday, with 8,484 others still under observation.

By the end of Wednesday, 1,016 confirmed cases including four deaths had been reported in Hong Kong, 45 confirmed cases in Macao and 395 in Taiwan including six deaths. And 459 patients in Hong Kong, 16 in Macao and 137 in Taiwan have been discharged from hospitals after recovery.

Hubei, the hardest-hit province in China, reported zero new confirmed cases and suspected cases on Wednesday. The province also has zero suspected cases at present.

As of Wednesday, a total of 67,803 confirmed cases and 3,222 deaths have been reported in Hubei. It still has 146 confirmed cases, including 38 in severe condition.

The province also saw 33 patients discharged from hospitals after recovery on Wednesday, bringing the total number of discharged patients in the province to 64,435.