Coronavirus: Xinjiang officials say there is no link between Kashgar and Urumqi outbreaks
- All 4.74 million residents of the far western border city have been tested in the past four days
- It now has five confirmed cases, but 178 people are asymptomatic
Li Linyu, Communist Party secretary of the health commission in Kashgar, said at a press briefing there were now five confirmed cases in the city, but there were 178 asymptomatic cases – people who had tested positive but did not have symptoms.
He said the five confirmed cases had previously been classified as asymptomatic and he expected more infections to be confirmed in the coming days.
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Other officials at the briefing said that while the latest outbreak in Kashgar had been traced to a clothing factory in a village in Shufu county, it was still unclear how the virus had spread there.
Li said virologists and experts had compared the genetic sequence of the coronavirus collected from the outbreaks in Kashgar and Urumqi and concluded there was no connection.