Dec 17: Daily briefing on novel coronavirus cases in China

On Dec 16, 31 provincial-level regions and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps on the Chinese mainland reported 76 new cases of confirmed infections (20 imported cases, 7 in Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, 5 in Yunnan province, 4 in Guangdong province, 3 in Shanghai municipality and 1 in Beijing municipality; 56 indigenous cases, 44 in Zhejiang province including 40 in Shaoxing, 2 in Hangzhou and 2 in Ningbo, 5 in Shaanxi province including 4 in Xi’an and 1 in Yan'an, 4 in Hulunbuir, Inner Mongolia autonomous region, 2 in Guangdong including 1 in Guangzhou and 1 in Dongguan, and 1 in Chengdu, Sichuan province), 3 new cases of suspected infections (all were imported cases in Shanghai), and no deaths. 26 patients were released from hospital after being cured. 4,634 people who had had close contact with infected patients were freed from medical observation. Serious cases decreased by 4.

As of 24:00 on Dec 16, 31 provincial-level regions and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps on the Chinese mainland had reported 10,548 cases of imported confirmed infections and no deaths. In all, 10,024 patients had been cured and discharged from hospital. There still remained 524 confirmed cases (including 5 cases in serious condition) and 4 suspected cases.

As of 24:00 on Dec 16, the National Health Commission had received reports of 100,076 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 93,884 patients had been cured and discharged from hospital. There still remained 1,556 confirmed cases (including 10 cases in serious condition) and 4 suspected cases. 1,377,744 people had been identified as having had close contact with infected patients. 51,438 were still under medical observation.

On Dec 16, 31 provincial-level regions and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps on the Chinese mainland reported 23 new asymptomatic cases (21 imported cases; 2 indigenous cases in Xi’an, Shaanxi). 11 asymptomatic cases were freed from medical observation (including 9 imported cases) and no asymptomatic cases became confirmed cases. As of 24:00 on Dec 16, 471 asymptomatic cases were still under medical observation (including 426 imported cases).

As of 24:00 on Dec 16, 29,354 confirmed infections had been reported in the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions and Taiwan province: 12,506 in Hong Kong (213 had died and 12,180 had been cured and discharged from hospital), 77 in Macao (all had been cured and discharged from hospital) and 16,771 in Taiwan (849 had died and 13,742 had been cured and discharged from hospital).