130 asymptomatic cases reported
A TOTAL of 130 new asymptomatic COVID-19 cases were reported on China’s mainland on Tuesday, while two were confirmed of being infected with the virus and 302 were discharged from medical observation, the National Health Commission said yesterday.
The commission said that 1,367 asymptomatic-infected patients were still under medical observation, dropping by 174 from the previous day.
It was the first time it has released such data following public concern over people who have tested positive but are not showing symptoms.
The central Hubei Province, which was hit hard by the outbreak, confirmed 47 asymptomatic COVID-19 patients on Tuesday, bringing the total to 982.
In China, asymptomatic cases will not be added to the overall tally unless they later show clinical symptoms. Experts agree that asymptomatic patients are likely to be infectious, but it remains unknown how responsible they are for spreading the deadly virus.
Last week, WHO epidemiologist Maria van Kerkhove said that symptomatic patients were the main drivers of transmission in the majority of cases, while most of those classified as asymptomatic developed symptoms a few days after diagnosis.
China says all detected asymptomatic cases and their close contacts must be put under medical observation.
Chinese respiratory expert Zhong Nanshan said last week that asymptomatic carriers could potentially infect “3 to 3.5 people each.”
Many other countries including South Korea and Japan count asymptomatic cases in their national tallies of confirmed diagnoses.
Health officials also reported the first imported case from abroad in Wuhan, capital of Hubei, heightening fears of infections being brought into China from other countries.
The imported case was a Chinese national studying in Britain, who arrived in the city last week as it started to gradually lift travel restrictions imposed to control the outbreak. The city had seen no new cases for seven consecutive days as of Monday.
Of 36 new cases reported on Tuesday, 35 were imported from abroad. The single new domestic case was reported in Guangdong Province.
Tuesday’s imported cases was down from 48 a day earlier, taking total infections arriving from overseas to 806.
Big cities including Beijing and Shanghai has announced a series of dramatic measures to control imported cases, including testing people arriving from overseas, to determine those who are infected but do not show symptoms.
(Agencies)