China reports 1,787 new local Covid-19 cases in past 24 hours

Chinese mainland reported 1,787 locally transmitted COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, the National Health Commission said on Friday.

Of the new local infections, 1,363 were reported in Jilin, 358 in Shanghai, 16 in Heilongjiang, 10 in Zhejiang, and nine in Jiangsu, according to Xinhua News Agency.

The rest of the cases were reported in 13 other provincial-level regions, according to the commission.

A total of 40 imported COVID-19 cases were reported Thursday, said the commission. It added that two suspected cases arriving from outside the mainland were reported in Shanghai and no new deaths from COVID-19 were reported on the day.

 

The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases currently undergoing treatment stood at 29,306, of whom 66 were in severe condition. A total of 4,638 patients had died of the virus on the mainland since the outbreak of the disease.

Meanwhile, the Chinese authorities have imposed the strictest lockdown measures in the city of 26 million since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, a media report said.

The city which is one of the important financial hubs of the country has been placed under lockdown as a result of China's 'zero-covid' strategy, Vision Times said.

Previously, Shanghai had managed its smaller previous outbreaks with limited lockdowns of housing compounds and workplaces where the virus was reported to be spreading.

This month, China has faced its worst outbreak since the coronavirus was first detected in Wuhan. From March 1 to 24, the country had reported 56,000 infections -- more than the total cases in Wuhan two years ago. On Sunday, 6,215 positive tests were recorded, with 3,500 of those in Shanghai, the Washington Post reported.

The number of coronavirus cases and deaths reported by the Chinese authorities since the beginning of the pandemic in late 2019 is considered a tiny fraction of the real figures, with Beijing admitting to just over 1,00,000 total cases prior to the current surge.