Dec 21: Daily briefing on novel coronavirus cases in China

On Dec 20, 31 provincial-level regions and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps on the Chinese mainland reported 81 new cases of confirmed infections (24 imported cases, 5 in Shanghai municipality, 5 in Fujian province, 4 in Guangdong province, 3 in Zhejiang province, 3 in Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, 1 in Beijing municipality, 1 in Tianjin municipality, 1 in Sichuan province and 1 in Shaanxi province, including 1 confirmed case converting from an asymptomatic case in Sichuan; 57 indigenous cases, 43 in Shaanxi including 42 in Xi’an and 1 in Xianyang, 8 in Shaoxing, Zhejiang and 6 in Dongguan, Guangdong, including 8 confirmed cases converting from asymptomatic cases in Shaanxi), no new cases of suspected infections, and no deaths. 49 patients were released from hospital after being cured. 2,206 people who had had close contact with infected patients were freed from medical observation. The number of serious cases remained unchanged.

As of 24:00 on Dec 20, 31 provincial-level regions and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps on the Chinese mainland had reported 10,712 cases of imported confirmed infections and no deaths. In all, 10,080 patients had been cured and discharged from hospital. There still remained 632 confirmed cases (including 4 cases in serious condition) and 1 suspected case.

As of 24:00 on Dec 20, the National Health Commission had received reports of 100,467 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 94,063 patients had been cured and discharged from hospital. There still remained 1,768 confirmed cases (including 5 cases in serious condition) and 1 suspected case. 1,389,524 people had been identified as having had close contact with infected patients. 52,463 were still under medical observation.

On Dec 20, 31 provincial-level regions and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps on the Chinese mainland reported 19 new asymptomatic cases (18 imported cases; 1 indigenous case in Heihe, Heilongjiang province). 16 asymptomatic cases were freed from medical observation (including 15 imported cases) and 9 asymptomatic cases became confirmed cases (including 1 imported case). As of 24:00 on Dec 20, 505 asymptomatic cases were still under medical observation (including 465 imported cases).

As of 24:00 on Dec 20, 29,426 confirmed infections had been reported in the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions and Taiwan province: 12,533 in Hong Kong (213 had died and 12,184 had been cured and discharged from hospital), 77 in Macao (all had been cured and discharged from hospital) and 16,816 in Taiwan (850 had died and 13,742 had been cured and discharged from hospital).