Mainland reports 34 new coronavirus cases, all from abroad

By Yang Zekun | chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2020-03-19 11:05

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Doctor Zhang Xiaoping (L) of urology surgery department examines a patient at Wuhan Union Hospital in Wuhan, Central China's Hubei province, March 16, 2020. Nearly two thirds departments of the hospital have resumed medical treatment for patients who suffer from other diseases so far. Hospitals designated for novel coronavirus patients in Wuhan will return to normal operation by the end of March, as the number of COVID-19 patients continues to drop. Those hospitals will be thoroughly disinfected after their missions of treating COVID-19 patients and will start taking patients of other diseases gradually. [Photo/Xinhua]

All of the new confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus on the Chinese mainland on Wednesday were imported from abroad, the statistics from the National Health Commission show on Thursday.

A total of 34 new confirmed cases of coronavirus infections and eight deaths were reported on Wednesday on the Chinese mainland, bringing the two numbers up to 80,928 and 3,245 respectively.

For the new imported confirmed cases, Beijing accounted for 21, Guangdong province had nine, Shanghai had two, and Heilongjiang province and Zhejiang province each reported one respectively. By the end of Wednesday, a total of 189 imported cases of novel coronavirus infections had been reported, said the commission.

All of the eight new fatalities occurred in Hubei province, it said, adding that there were another 23 new suspected cases reported Wednesday. A total of 105 people are still suspected of being infected with the virus, and there were 7,263 confirmed cases across the country.

On Wednesday, 819 people were discharged from hospitals after recovery, while the number of severe cases decreased by 308 to 2,314. A total of 70,420 people had been discharged from hospitals after recovery as of Wednesday midnight.

Health authorities on the mainland have traced 683,281 people with close contact with patients. Among them, 1,032 were discharged from medical observation Wednesday, with 9,144 others still under medical observation.

By the end of Wednesday, 192 confirmed cases including four deaths had been reported in Hong Kong, 15 confirmed cases in Macao, and 100 in Taiwan including one death. And 95 patients in Hong Kong, 10 in Macao and 22 in Taiwan have been discharged from hospitals after recovery.

Hubei, the hardest-hit province on the Chinese mainland, reported zero new confirmed cases and suspected cases on Wednesday.

As of Wednesday, a total of 67,800 confirmed cases and 3,130 deaths have been reported in Hubei. It still has 6,992 confirmed cases, including 2,274 in severe condition.

The province also saw 795 patients discharged from hospitals after recovery on Wednesday, bringing the total number of discharged patients in the province to 57,678, it said.