China’s local infections drop, imported rise

The number of new coronavirus cases imported into mainland China from overseas surpassed the number of locally transmitted new infections for the first time on Friday, according to data released by the National Health Commission. Mainland China had 11 new confirmed cases on Friday, up from eight cases a day earlier, but only four of those - all in the virus epicentre of Hubei province - were locally transmitted, according to the data released on Saturday.

The other seven - including four in the financial hub of Shanghai, one in the capital

Beijing and two in the northwestern province of Gansu - were all detected in travellers coming into China from overseas, specifically Italy, the United States and Saudi Arabia. Later on Saturday, Shanghai’s city government confirmed a further two imported cases in travellers from France and Spain.

The numbers underscore how China, where the outbreak began in December, appears to now face a greater threat of new infections from outside its borders as it continues to slow the spread of the virus domestically.

A total of 95 cases have entered mainland China from overseas by the end of Friday, the commission said.

Hubei has now seen new infections fall for nine straight days. All four new cases on Friday were in the provincial capital Wuhan. The death toll in mainland China from the coronavirus had reached 3,189 by the end of Friday, up by 13 from the previous day. All the latest deaths were in Hubei and 10 were in Wuhan.

The virus has infected 80,824 people in mainland China, the commission said. Globally, more than 138,000 have been infected and over 5,000 have died, according to a Reuters tally. As cases rise overseas, the steel hub of Tangshan in northern China’s Hebei province warned people entering the city against concealing their travel history.