Over 50 new COVID-19 cases reported in Hebei

Hebei province reported 51 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 69 asymptomatic carriers on Thursday, all locally transmitted, bringing its total of recently confirmed cases to 90 and local asymptomatic carriers to 144, according to the Health Commission of Hebei.

Among the newly reported confirmed cases, 50 are in Shijiazhuang, Hebei's capital city, with two cases emerging from asymptomatic carriers reported earlier. And another confirmed case is in Xingtai city, also arising from an asymptomatic result.

Most of the new confirmed cases in Shijiazhuang are in Gaocheng district, except three who lived in other places in Shijiazhuang -- one in Zhengding county, neighboring Gaocheng, one in Xingtang county and one in Xinhua district in downtown Shijiazhuang.

The ones in Zhengding and Xinhua district had been to Liujiazuo village in Gaocheng before they were confirmed on Wednesday.

The patient in Xingtang worked at a natural gas station in Yushe county, Jinzhong, Shanxi province, neighboring Hebei. The 30-year-old man had not been to Gaocheng in Shijiazhuang.

Most of the confirmed cases are centered in villages in Gaocheng. And most of them are in their 50s or 60s.

The province has reported new local cases for five consecutive days in this new outbreak of COVID-19 since Sunday.

It also reported two imported confirmed cases on Thursday.