16 new imported COVID-19 cases reported

The Chinese mainland reported 16 new confirmed COVID-19 cases on Sunday, all from people entering the country, including 11 in Sichuan province, according to the National Health Commission.

As of Sunday night, more than 83,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases have been reported on the Chinese mainland, including more than 4,600 deaths, the commission said on Monday.

In Hubei province, the area in China hit hardest by the epidemic, no new asymptomatic cases were reported on Sunday for the first time since Hubei started to publish the number of asymptomatic cases in April, according to the Hubei Provincial Health Commission.

By Sunday, the number of COVID-19 patients in Hubei had been reduced to three, all in Wuhan, including one in severe condition. Another 320 asymptomatic cases are under medical observation.

All the 11 confirmed cases in Sichuan were passengers on a flight that originated in Cairo, Egypt, on May 30 and arrived in Chengdu, Sichuan province, the same day. The 11 are all undergoing medical treatment, and all the other passengers are under medical observation in a designated quarantine site, the provincial health commission said.

Of the other five cases from Sunday, three were reported in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region and two in Guangdong province.

The COVID-19 outbreak resulted in thousands of new cases a day in China during its peak in February and has been under control since March. Hubei's capital Wuhan was locked down to help contain the spread for more than 70 days. The outbreak, first reported in December, has caused the most extensive infections and has been the most difficult disease to contain domestically in China in seven decades.

By early March, newly reported confirmed cases on the Chinese mainland were reduced to double digits on a daily basis, and it has remained in double digits or lower ever since, with most new cases being from people entering the country. Meanwhile, production and work has been resuming in most places in China, with strict epidemic control and prevention measures in place.

Despite the epidemic being well under control domestically, some experts believe the virus will not be eliminated totally in the near future, and sustained efforts for its control and prevention are needed to prevent a rebound outbreak, experts have said.

Zhang Wenhong, director of the infectious disease department of Huashan Hospital in Shanghai, said it is certain that a second wave of COVID-19 outbreak will occur in China this fall and winter, as the pandemic is still serious outside China and more imported cases may occur.

However, due to the effective epidemic prevention and control system that has been established in China, he said the public need not be excessively worried as long as they have taken proper self-protection measures.

The virus may continue to coexist with humans for one or two years, but it will have very limited effect on people's lives as long as consistent disease control and prevention efforts are made, he said.