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. Coronavirus: don’t abandon your cat because of unproven scientific research, experts say “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. China has tightened international arrivals, banning most foreigners from entering and limiting foreign airlines to one flight per week, and ordered almost everyone who enters the country to be placed under concentrated isolation. One of the five new domestic cases was an eight-year-old girl surnamed Zhuang, who tested positive on Saturday, after her mother was confirmed to have been infected on Thursday. Zhuang’s mother runs a restaurant in Guangzhou which is popular with foreigners, according to local authorities in Jieyang city. The girl had returned to Jieyang from Guangdong last Monday and had been living in a house with a three-year-old boy named Zhan who has also tested positive. Coronavirus: China pulls the plug on wasteful, unnecessary research into Covid-19 The remaining three new cases in Guangzhou were also related to imported infections. The total imported cases stood at 165. Wang Xinhua, president of Guangzhou Medical University, said the current situation was no cause for alarm. “Guangdong is the southern gateway of our country, and the capital Guangzhou is an international shipping hub,” Wang said. “For now, new cases mainly consist of imported cases from abroad, and local transmissions are related to those. It is not surprising that those cases appear here. We are still facing pressure. But if strict prevention measures are imposed well, it should not have a great impact on restarting the economy.” Sign up now and get a 10% discount (original price US$400) off the China AI Report 2020 by SCMP Research. Learn about the AI ambitions of Alibaba, Baidu & JD.com through our in-depth case studies, and explore new applications of AI across industries. The report also includes exclusive access to webinars to interact with C-level executives from leading China AI companies (via live Q&A sessions). Offer valid until 31 May 2020.