Shanghai tally of confirmed cases hits 112

SHANGHAI confirmed another 11 coronavirus cases and cleared 28 suspected cases yesterday, the Shanghai Health Commission said. This pushes the total number of confirmed cases in the city to 112 — 60 males and 52 females, aged between 7 and 88.

The newly confirmed patients include two from Wuhan, capital of Hubei Province, one from Heilongjiang Province and eight Shanghai residents, including those with local residency and people staying in the city for over six months.

The local residents include four living in Pudong New Area, two in Songjiang District and one each in Yangpu and Minhang districts.

Among all patients, 78 have lived in or traveled to Hubei. One patient traveled to Guangdong Province and ate wild animal meat. Another 31 have had close contact with infected patients or had close contact with people from Hubei, the commission said.

Wu Jinglei, director of the commission, told a news conference yesterday that two patients — a man, 81, and his 52-year-old daughter — had no contact with Hubei. They developed symptoms including fatigue and cough on January 12. They were diagnosed with coronavirus-related pneumonia on Wednesday.

Wu said that an investigation is still under way as to how the pair became infected.

He said Shanghai has enhanced epidemic monitoring since the virus outbreak, intensifying screening and quarantine of close contacts with infected patients and conducting tests on some of them. The city has also enhanced monitoring of flu patients and done new coronavirus tests on certain patients.

He added that Shanghai has not seen infected patients without symptoms but is keeping a close eye on such cases in other provinces. The city is also adjusting prevention and control measures according to the latest guidelines from the National Health Commission.

Currently, 102 patients in the city are in stable condition, another four are critical, one has died and five have been discharged upon recovery, the commission said.