SHANGHAI (Reuters) – China reported the biggest increase in daily cases of COVID-19 in more than five months on Thursday, due to an increase in infections in Hebei province, near the capital Beijing.
Hebei, which entered “war mode” on Tuesday, was responsible for 51 of the 52 local cases reported by the National Health Commission on Thursday. This compared with 20 cases registered in the province a day earlier.
The total number of new COVID-19 cases for the whole of mainland China stood at 63, compared with 32 reported the day before, marking the largest increase in daily cases since 127 cases were reported on July 30.
The number of asymptomatic patients, who were infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes the disease, but have not yet developed any symptoms, also increased to 79, from 64 the day before.
The total number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in mainland China since the outbreak in Wuhan city in late 2019 now stands at 87,278 cases, while the death toll has remained unchanged at 4,634.
Authorities in Shijiazhuang, the capital of Hebei, where most of the new cases are located, launched mass tests and banned meetings to reduce the spread of the coronavirus.
Travelers must have a negative result of the COVID-19 nucleic acid test done within 72 hours before boarding a train or plane in the province.
In the city of Dalian, in Liaoning province, which has reported local infections in the past few days, residents of medium or high-risk areas have been prevented from leaving the city. Residents of other areas have been instructed to avoid unnecessary travel outside Dalian.
Authorities in Guangdong province reported on Wednesday a patient infected with a more transmissible variant of the coronavirus discovered in South Africa.
Some scientists fear that the COVID-19 vaccines being launched may not be able to protect against this variant because of certain mutations that have been observed.
(Reporting by Jing Wang and Josh Horwitz; Writing by Se Young Lee; Editing by Christopher Cushing and Michael Perry)