China sees rise in new COVID-19 cases

Mainland China reported 30 new coronavirus cases on Saturday (Apr 4), up from 19 a day earlier as the amount of cases involving travellers from abroad and also local transmissions increased, highlighting the difficulty in stamping out the outbreak.

The National Health Commission said in a statement on Sunday that 25 of the latest cases involved persons who had entered from abroad, compared with 18 such cases a day earlier. Five new locally transmitted infections were also reported on Saturday, all in the southern coastal province of Guangdong, up from a day earlier.

The mainland has reported a total of 81,669 cases, as the death toll has risen by three to 3,329.

Though daily infections have fallen drastically from the height of the epidemic in February, when a huge selection of new cases were reported daily, Beijing remains struggling to completely halt new infections despite imposing probably the most drastic actions to curb the virus' spread.

The so-called imported cases and asymptomatic patients, who have the virus and will give it to others but show no symptoms, have grown to be among China's chief concerns in recent weeks. The country has closed off its borders to almost all foreigners as the virus spread globally, though most of the imported cases involve Chinese nationals returning from overseas.

The central government also has pushed local authorities to identify and isolate the asymptomatic patients.

The health commission said 47 new asymptomatic cases were reported in the mainland on Saturday, compared with 64 a day earlier.