China has reported 46 new coronavirus cases, including four local and 34 asymptomatic infections, while three more people have died due to the global pandemic, taking the death toll in the country to 3,339, health officials said here on Saturday.
According to China's National Health Commission, the Chinese mainland reported a total of 1,183 imported cases as of Friday. Of them, 449 have been discharged from hospitals after recovery, and 734 are being treated with 37 in severe condition.
The overall confirmed cases in the country reached 81,953 by Friday, including 1,089 patients who were still being treated, 77,525 people discharged after recovery, and 3,339 people have died of the disease, it said.
A total of 46 new confirmed COVID-19 cases were reported on Friday, of which 42 were imported, it added.
The four new domestically transmitted cases were reported, with three in Guangdong and one in Heilongjiang, it said in its daily report on Saturday.
Three deaths, all in the epicentre Hubei province and eight new suspected cases, all imported ones, were reported on Friday on the mainland China, it said.
The commission said that 44 people, all imported ones, were still suspected of being infected with the virus.
Also on Friday, 34 new asymptomatic COVID-19 cases, including seven from abroad, were reported on the mainland.
The NHC said 1,092 asymptomatic cases, including 338 from abroad, were still under medical observation.
Asymptomatic cases refer to people who are tested positive for the coronavirus but develop no symptoms such as fever, cough or sore throat. They are infectious and pose a risk of spreading to others.
By Friday, 989 confirmed cases including four deaths had been reported in Hong Kong, 45 confirmed cases in Macao and 382 in Taiwan including six deaths.
As the numbers of new cases showed sharp increase after China contained COVID-19 in its epicentres Hubei province and its capital Wuhan, President Xi Jinping on Friday called for tighter supervision of safety measures at workplaces.
His orders came as China resumed work and production in a big way after over two months of battle against the coronavirus pandemic.
Xi asked officials to strengthen monitoring and law enforcement of production safety even as coronavirus cases began to rise again in China following the return of Chinese nationals from abroad in big numbers.
The authorities should firmly hold the bottom line of workplace safety, Xi was quoted as saying by the state-run Xinhua news agency on Friday.
Premier Li Keqiang, who headed the leading group of officials to control COVID-19, also said officials must ensue there is not let up on workplace safety at a time when the country is in a critical period of coordinating epidemic control and work resumption.
The instructions were delivered at a national teleconference on workplace safety in Beijing on Friday.
Starting from Sunday, China has also made it mandatory for all hotels in Beijing to admit guests with only negative test results of the coronavirus.
The novel coronavirus which originated from China in December has killed 102,669 people and infected over 1.6 million people globally. The US has the highest number of infections at 500,399, while Italy leads the death toll with 18,849 fatalities, according to Johns Hopkins University data.
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