Chinese health officials said Monday they documented 526 new, domestically transmitted Chinese coronavirus cases across 13 provinces, the state-run Global Times reported.
Chinese health authorities detected the 526 new infections within a 24-hour-period spanning March 6 to March 7, according to the Associated Press (AP). Of the 526 cases, 214 were classified as “confirmed” or symptomatic, while 312 were labeled “asymptomatic.”
The Global Times detailed how over a dozen Chinese provinces woke up to fresh coronavirus caseloads on Monday, writing:
The 214 confirmed cases are scattered in 13 provinces across the country, most of whom are from south China’s Guangdong Province (69), northeast China’s Jilin Province (54), east China’s Shandong Province (46) and north China’s Hebei Province (9), according to data accumulated by the National Health Commission [NHC] on Monday.
Among the 312 asymptomatic cases, most are from Shandong’s Qingdao (117) and Guangdong (104), Shanghai (45) in East China and Yunnan (18) in Southwest China, the NHC said.
The Global Times is published by the People’s Daily, which is the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). China’s ruling Communist Party attempted to blame at least some of its Chinese coronavirus resurgence on Monday on foreign nations, a tactic it has repeatedly employed over the past several months despite a lack of evidence and the disease’s origin in central China’s Wuhan city in 2019. The Global Times claimed on March 7 that new infections of the Chinese coronavirus in Qingdao city’s Huangdao district were traced to “contaminated” imported goods.
“Shandong’s Qingdao, which reported the second highest COVID-19 [Chinese coronavirus] infections on Sunday [March 6], has two transmission chains — Huangdao and Laixi. The outbreak in Huangdao was traced back to goods contaminated with Omicron,” the newspaper alleged.
The government claims most of China’s latest coronavirus outbreak is centered in its southern province of Guangdong, which borders Hong Kong. The city of Hong Kong has recently recorded “tens of thousands” of new Chinese coronavirus infections per day as part of its latest epidemic of the disease, the AP observed on March 7.
Hong Kong’s government has failed to provide residents with clear messaging regarding its rumored plan to impose a city-wide lockdown on the metropolis sometime in March to contain its coronavirus outbreak. The communication failure has prompted panic buying across Hong Kong supermarkets in recent days along with a reported exodus from the city by some residents fearing draconian restrictions on movement, Quartz news site revealed on March 7.
“For the past three weeks, there has been a net departure of over 20,000 residents each week, the highest levels in more than two years,” Quartz reported on Monday citing data from Hong Kong’s immigration authorities compiled by David Webb, a Hong Kong-based investor.
“The recent exodus has been driven in large part by an unpredictable, opaque, and poorly communicated public health policymaking process,” according to the news website.
