The National Health Commission of China 47 people died from COVID-19 in the eastern metropolis of Shanghai on Friday, bringing the total death toll since the epidemic began in China to 5,022.
The city, which has been under strict confinement for a month -in some areas, more than a month and a half-, has a total of 384 deaths since the end of February.
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.
Thus, the Commission today reported 1,424 new positive cases of the coronavirus detected the day before, 1,410 of them due to local contagion and the rest imported.
The areas with the highest number of community transmission cases were Shanghai (east, 1,249) and Beijing (48).
Health authorities also reported today the detection of 9,369 asymptomatic cases, 9,293 of them local (mostly in Shanghai), although they are not counted as confirmed cases unless they show symptoms.
The remaining infections, found among travelers from abroad, were detected in various regions of the country.
The total number of active infected in mainland China amounts to 26,567, 458 of them in serious condition.
China: Shanghai tightens restrictions due to coronavirus outbreak
According to the institution’s accounts, since the start of the pandemic, more than 215,000 people have been infected in the country and 5,022 have died.
To date, medical follow-up has been carried out on almost 3.4 million close contacts with those infected, of which more than 455,000 remain under quarantine.
