Mainland China daily local COVID cases at 2-year high

A medical worker collects a swab sample

Mainland China has logged its highest number of daily new local symptomatic COVID-19 infections in about two years, as the highly transmissible Omicron variant pressures its stringent policy to curb each outbreak quickly.

China reported 214 domestically transmitted cases with confirmed symptoms for Sunday, data from the National Health Commission showed on Monday.

That marks the highest daily caseload since Chinese authorities started in early March 2020 to count locally found infections and cases arriving from outside mainland separately.

China's latest local virus flare-ups are tiny by global standards, and the country is sticking to its "dynamic-clearing" policy which requires local authorities to quickly identify and quarantine every infection and their close contacts and impose travel restrictions to cut off transmission.

The majority of Sunday's 214 local cases were found in the provinces of Guangdong, Jilin and Shandong.

The number of locally transmitted asymptomatic cases rose to 312 for Sunday, the highest daily number since China stared in late March, 2020 to classify symptomless infections seperately from confirmed cases.

There were no new deaths, leaving the death toll unchanged at 4,636.

As of March 6, China had reported 111,195 cases with confirmed symptoms, including both local ones and those arriving from outside the mainland.

Reporting by Roxanne Liu, Albee Zhang and Ryan Woo; Editing by Shri Navaratnam, Lincoln Feast and Edwina Gibbs

REUTERS