China sees drop in new COVID-19 cases; all new cases imported

BEIJING: Mainland China saw a drop in its daily tally of new coronavirus cases, reversing four straight days of gains, as the country’s capital Beijing ramped up measures to contain the number of infections arriving from abroad.

China had 39 new confirmed cases on Sunday (Mar 22), the country’s National Health Commission said, down from 46 a day earlier. All of them involved travellers arriving from abroad.

The city of Beijing expanded measures to contain imported infections, diverting all international flights arriving from Monday to other airports where passengers will undergo virus screening.

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Beijing reported 10 new imported cases, the National Health Commission said on Monday, down from 13 a day earlier. Infections from abroad in the city hit an all-time high of 21 on Mar 18.

Shanghai and Guangzhou have also said all arriving international passengers will undergo tests to screen for the coronavirus, expanding a programme that previously only applied to those coming from heavily-affected countries.

Shanghai reported 10 new cases on Sunday, down from a record 14 a day earlier.

Guangdong province saw seven new imported infections, Fujian had four and Jiangsu had two. Hebei, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Shandong and Sichuan each saw just one case, bringing the total imported cases in China to 314 so far.

Mainland China saw no new locally transmitted infections.

As of Sunday, the total accumulated number of confirmed cases in mainland China stood at 81,093.

The death toll from the outbreak in mainland China reached 3,270, up by nine from the previous day. 

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