May 18: Daily briefing on novel coronavirus cases in China

On May 17, 31 provincial-level regions and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps on the Chinese mainland reported 22 new cases of confirmed infections (18 imported cases, 6 in Shaanxi province, 4 in Shanghai municipality, 2 in Sichuan province, 1 in Heilongjiang province, 1 in Zhejiang province, 1 in Fujian province, 1 in Shandong province, 1 in Hunan province and 1 in Guangdong province; 4 indigenous cases in Liaoning province), 1 new case of suspected infections (an imported case in Shanghai), and no deaths. 18 patients were released from hospital after being cured. 151 people who had had close contact with infected patients were freed from medical observation. Serious cases increased by 1.

As of 24:00 on May 17, 31 provincial-level regions and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps on the Chinese mainland had reported 5,876 cases of imported confirmed infections and no deaths. In all, 5,616 patients had been cured and discharged from hospital. There still remained 260 confirmed cases (including 1 case in serious condition) and 1 suspected case.

As of 24:00 on May 17, the National Health Commission had received reports of 90,894 confirmed cases and 4,636 deaths in 31 provincial-level regions and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps on the Chinese mainland, and in all 85,963 patients had been cured and discharged from hospital. There still remained 295 confirmed cases (including 2 cases in serious condition) and 1 suspected case. 1,016,705 people had been identified as having had close contact with infected patients. 7,042 were still under medical observation.

On May 17, 31 provincial-level regions and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps on the Chinese mainland reported 20 new asymptomatic cases (18 imported cases; 2 indigenous cases in Anhui province). 14 asymptomatic cases were freed from medical observation (all were imported cases) and 4 asymptomatic cases became confirmed cases (including 3 imported cases). As of 24:00 on May 17, 349 asymptomatic cases were still under medical observation (including 332 imported cases).

As of 24:00 on May 17, 13,892 confirmed infections had been reported in the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions and Taiwan province: 11,825 in Hong Kong (210 had died and 11,531 had been cured and discharged from hospital), 50 in Macao (49 had been cured and discharged from hospital) and 2,017 in Taiwan (12 had died and 1,123 had been cured and discharged from hospital).