The Chinese National Health Commission reported this Friday a new death due to covid-19 and the detection of 276 new positives for the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus the day before, 253 of them due to local contagion.
The death was recorded in Shanghai, converted two months ago into the epicenter of outbreaks in the Asian country and whose 26 million inhabitants remain in strict confinement.
The provinces with the highest number of community transmission cases were Shanghai (east, 194), Beijing (32), Henan (central, 7), and Guangzhou (south, 4).
China, which applies a severe “zero tolerance” policy towards the new coronavirus, is going through a wave of outbreaks attributed to the omicron variant that is causing record numbers of infections not seen since the start of the pandemic in the first half of 2020.
Health authorities also reported today the detection of 1,796 asymptomatic cases, 1,726 of them local (the majority in Shanghai), although Beijing does not count them as confirmed cases unless they show symptoms.
The remaining 23 infections, found among travelers from abroad, were detected in various regions of the country.
The National Health Commission also detailed that, until last local midnight (4:00 p.m. GMT on Friday), 866 patients were discharged after overcoming covid.
The total number of active infected in mainland China amounts to 6,353, 384 of them in serious condition.
According to the institution’s accounts, since the start of the pandemic, 221,565 people have been infected in the country and 5,206 have died.
To date, medical follow-up has been carried out on more than 3.8 million close contacts with those infected, of which 343,896 are still under observation.
EFE
