China reports just ONE new domestic coronavirus infection for a second day in a row
- The single domestic case was in Wuhan where the virus emerged last December
- New cases in the surrounding Hubei province have been single digits for a week
- Wuhan was quarantined on January 23 and Hubei locked down days after
- Chinese President Xi Jinping said earlier this month that the virus had been ‘basically curbed’ in the outbreak’s epicentre
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China reported just one new domestic case of the coronavirus for the second day in a row today.
For the second consecutive day there was only one more fresh infection in Wuhan, the central city where the virus first emerged late last year, the National Health Commission said.
New cases in surrounding Hubei province have now been in the single digits for the past seven days, down from a peak of several thousand per day in early February.
This photo taken yesterday shows medical workers from Guizhou province being celebrated in a ceremony as they depart from Wuhan, in China’s central Hubei. The first groups of medical teams from around China who went to Wuhan to assist with the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak began leaving Wuhan yesterday
Passengers wearing face masks queue to have their tickets checked as a train arrives at Jiujiang railway station in Jiujiang, a city which sits on the border between China’s central Jiangxi province and Hubei province, the epicentre of the country’s COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak, today
Clean-up: A volunteer wearing a protective suit and face mask operates a remote-controlled disinfection robot in a residential area of Wuhan, which recorded only one new case today for the second day in a row
Wuhan and its 11 million people were placed under strict quarantine on January 23, with the rest of Hubei entering lockdown in the following days.
But there has been an easing of restrictions in some parts of the province in recent days, with China saying it has ‘basically curbed’ the spread of the virus.
A number of smaller cities are now allowing healthy people to leave the province to return to work or their hometowns elsewhere.
But imported cases are a rising concern for China, with 12 more reported Wednesday, bringing the total number to 155 and fuelling fears of an influx.
Police officers salute as a medical worker from outside Wuhan arrives at the Wuhan Railway Station to leave the epicentre of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Hubei province, China yesterday
An average of 20,000 people are flying into China every day, according to the government, and 10 Chinese provinces and cities are imposing mandatory quarantines on those arriving from abroad.
Beijing is requiring almost all international arrivals go into a 14-day quarantine at designated hotels in the capital.
Five of the new imported cases reported Wednesday were in southern Guangdong – China’s most populous province, which announced quarantines on Monday. Beijing and Shanghai each had three, and there was one elsewhere.
China also reported 11 deaths Wednesday, raising its toll from the virus to 3,237, and total infections on the mainland reached 80,894.