Health officials in China fear Coronavirus could return due to rise in imported cases

China confirmed 11 new coronavirus cases, including six locally transmitted infections, taking the total count to 82,827, while a senior health official has warned of domestic resurgence of COVID-19 due to the rise in imported cases.

Death toll in China remained at 4,632 for the past 10 days, according to data released by the National Health Commission (NHC) on Sunday.

The 11 new confirmed COVID-19 cases were reported on Saturday. Of them, five were imported from overseas, while six were locally transmitted infections, it said.

Five of the new cases were in Heilongjiang province bordering Russia and another was in Guangdong province.

As many as 30 new asymptomatic cases, including seven imported, were also reported, taking the total number of such cases to 1,000, the NHC said.

Asymptomatic cases refer to people who are tested COVID-19 positive but develop no symptoms such as fever, cough or sore throat. However, they pose a risk of spreading the disease to others.

China has so far registered total 82,827 COVID-19 cases, including 77,394 recoveries.

While China contained the pandemic at Wuhan where the novel coronavirus first emerged in December last year, the growing numbers of imported cases as well as asymptomatic cases remained a cause of concern for health officials.

As of Saturday, the number of imported cases climbed to 1,634, including 22 in critical condition, the NHC said.

Also, the 1,000 suspected asymptomatic cases includes 151 from abroad. All such patients are still under medical observation.

NHC spokesperson Mi Feng has warned that China still faces a tough task to prevent a resurgence of the COVID-19 pandemic due to imported cases.

The number of countries as sources of imported cases reported on the Chinese mainland rose to 50 on Friday, he told a media briefing on Saturday.

Seven provincial-level regions reported newly imported cases or suspected cases on Friday, Mi noted, calling for targeted epidemic prevention and control measures as well as consistent personal protection.

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