No new local coronavirus cases for a third consecutive day have been registered by China for Saturday, but the lowest but still higher infection rates from abroad have been confirmed.
China has been slowing down infection rates for weeks, while the rest of the world is taking action to combat a furious pandemic.
On Friday, the World Health Organization lauded the progress of China in containing the outbreak in Wuhan city, where the virus appeared first at the beginning of last year.
“Wuhan provides hope for the rest of the world that even the most severe situation can be turned around,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a virtual news conference in Geneva.
Some 56 million people in Wuhan and surrounding Hubei province were locked down in late January, but authorities are progressively easing the travel curbs as cases have dwindled.
However, China has stepped up controls to tackle infections brought in from other countries, with another 41 cases reported Saturday – the highest one-day tally yet.
In total, 269 cases have now been brought into China from abroad. Beijing and other regions are forcing international arrivals to go into a 14-day quarantine, while the civil aviation ministry said this week it would limit passenger numbers on inbound international flights.
There have been over 81,000 cases in China, but the health commission said only 6,013 were still ill with the disease.
what is the name of the virus? and how is it spread?