China registers twelve deaths and 374 new cases of coronavirus, 356 of them local

The National Health Commission of China announced this Friday 12 new deaths from covid-19 and the detection of 374 new positives for the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus the day before, 356 of them due to local contagion.

All the deaths were recorded in Shanghai, which has become the epicenter of outbreaks in the Asian country for a month and whose 26 million inhabitants have been in strict confinement for a month.

The provinces with the highest number of community transmission cases were Shanghai (east, 245), Beijing (55), Henan (central, 24), and Guangzhou (southeast, 13).

China, which applies a severe “zero tolerance” policy towards the new coronavirus, is going through a wave of outbreaks attributed to the omicron variant that is causing record numbers of infections not seen since the start of the pandemic in the first half of 2020.

Health authorities also reported today the detection of 4,340 asymptomatic cases, 4,272 of them local (the majority in Shanghai), although Beijing does not count them as confirmed cases unless they show symptoms.

The remaining 18 infections, found among travelers from abroad, were detected in various regions of the country.

The National Health Commission also detailed that, until last local midnight (4:00 p.m. GMT on Thursday), 1,602 patients were discharged after successfully overcoming covid.

The total number of active infected in mainland China amounts to 11,515, 659 of them in serious condition.

According to the institution’s accounts, since the start of the pandemic, 218,945 people have been infected in the country and 5,153 have died.

To date, medical follow-up has been carried out on more than 3.6 million close contacts with those infected, of which 456,802 are still under observation.