Coronavirus: China reports new infections as country remains on guard against imported cases
- Further outbreaks threaten to cast shadow over attempts to return to normal and get the economy going again
- Five new domestic cases of Covid-19 reported in southern province of Guangdong and 25 imported ones
China confirmed 30 new cases of Covid-19 on Saturday, five of which were domestic cases in southern Guangdong province, including two children aged eight and three.
The new cases take the country’s official total to 81,669. Three more people had died as of Saturday, bringing the death toll to 3,329, the National Health Commission said.
The new cases in Guangdong, one of the main powerhouses of China’s economy, cast a shadow on its efforts to restart the economy and return to normal life and prompted speculation on social media that reopening schools would have to be delayed.
China has largely stopped the spread of the disease, but there is fear that infected people coming from abroad and symptomless carriers could trigger a second wave.
“The new cases reported by many provinces recently are actually the secondary cases of imported infections.” Wang Bin, an official with the National Health Commission, told a press conference on Thursday.
Wang said that at the early stages, some provinces believed people entering China from low-risk countries had been allowed to make their own travel and quarantine arrangements but may have been silent carriers or gone on to develop the disease.