Second wave concerns for China
BEIJING: Wuhan, the original epicentre of the new coronavirus outbreak in China, yesterday reported its first cluster of infections since a lockdown on the central Chinese city was lifted a month ago, stoking concerns of a wider resurgence of the disease.
The new infections add a layer of caution to efforts to lower Covid19related restrictions across China as businesses restart and individuals go back to work.
Wuhan reported five new confirmed cases, all of whom live in the same residential compound. One of them was the wife of an 89yearold male patient reported a day earlier in the first confirmed case in the city since April 3.
All the latest confirmed cases were previously classified as asymptomatic.
The number of asymptomatic cases in China is not known, as they only appear on the radar of health officials when they show up positive during tests conducted as part of contact tracing and health checks.
China does not include asymptomatic cases in its overall tally of confirmed cases, currently at 82,918, until they exhibit signs of infection. Mainland China has reported 4633 deaths.
Hundreds of asymptomatic cases in Wuhan, which was released on April 8 from a monthslong lockdown, are being monitored, according to the city's health authority.
The number of new cases reported in China since April has been small compared with the thousands confirmed each day in February, thanks to a nationwide regime of screening, testing and quarantine.
China is gradually reopening cinemas, museums and other recreational venues, though restrictions and a limit on numbers will be in place.
Shanghai has already reopened some night entertainment venues such as discotheques. Walt Disney Co yesterday reopened its Shanghai Disneyland park, though to a reduced number of visitors.
South Korea is also battling a wave of new cases, although there the most recent outbreaks started in nightclubs and bars.
The Wuhan cases helped push the overall new Covid19 infections confirmed yesterday to 17, the highest daily increase since April 28.
Of the new cases, seven were socalled imported cases in the northern Chinese region of Inner Mongolia involving travellers from overseas, compared with two reported a day earlier.
Northeastern Jilin province, which on Saturday reported a cluster of infections in one of its cities, Shulan, reported three additional local cases.
New coronavirus infections were also accelerating again in Germany just days after its leaders loosened social restrictions, raising concerns that the pandemic could again slip out of control.
The Robert Koch Institute for disease control said in a daily bulletin the number of people each sick person now infects, known as the reproduction rate, or R, had risen to 1.1. When it goes above 1, it means the number of infections is growing.— Reuters