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 2,286 new cases of confirmed infections (57 imported cases, 13 in Guangdong province, 9 in Beijing municipality, 7 in Liaoning province, 6 in Sichuan province, 5 in Inner Mongolia autonomous region, 5 in Shanghai municipality, 4 in Fujian province, 4 in Shandong province, 3 in Shaanxi province and 1 in Heilongjiang province; 2,229 indigenous cases, 990 in Guangdong province, 444 in Beijing municipality, 178 in Chongqing municipality, 110 in Fujian province, 97 in Sichuan province, 55 in Shanghai municipality, 54 in Shandong province, 52 in Zhejiang province, 43 in Yunnan province, 42 in Henan province, 41 in Hunan province, 29 in Tianjin municipality, 21 in Inner Mongolia autonomous region, 14 in Shaanxi province, 13 in Hebei province, 11 in Heilongjiang province, 10 in Shanxi province, 7 in Jiangsu province, 7 in Guizhou province, 5 in Liaoning province, 3 in Qinghai province, 2 in Jilin province and 1 in Anhui province), no deaths, and 1 new case of suspected infections (an indigenous case in Beijing municipality).

On Dec 16, 2,649 patients were released from hospital after being cured (35 imported cases; 2,614 indigenous cases, 1,018 in Beijing municipality, 822 in Guangdong province, 133 in Fujian province, 121 in Chongqing municipality, 91 in Yunnan province, 86 in Shaanxi province, 54 in Zhejiang province, 45 in Hainan province, 37 in Sichuan province, 29 in Inner Mongolia autonomous region, 26 in Heilongjiang province, 24 in Shanxi province, 24 in Jiangsu province, 21 in Liaoning province, 19 in Henan province, 16 in Guizhou province, 9 in Shanghai municipality, 8 in Hubei province, 8 in Hunan province, 7 in Hebei province, 5 in Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, 4 in Tianjin municipality, 4 in Anhui province, 1 in Jilin province, 1 in Shandong province and 1 in Qinghai province). 87,964 people who had had close contact with infected patients were freed from medical observation. The number of serious cases increased by 34.

As of 24:00 on Dec 16, 31 provincial-level regions and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps on the Chinese mainland had reported 28,496 cases of imported confirmed infections and no deaths. In all, 28,050 patients had been cured and discharged from hospital. There still remained 446 confirmed cases (no cases in serious condition) and no suspected cases.

As of 24:00 on Dec 16, the National Health Commission had received reports of 376,361 confirmed cases and 5,235 deaths in 31 provincial-level regions and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps on the Chinese mainland, and in all 336,768 patients had been cured and discharged from hospital. There still remained 34,334 confirmed cases (including 227 cases in serious condition) and 19 suspected cases. 15,241,484 people had been identified as having had close contact with infected patients. 394,758 were still under medical observation.

As of 24:00 on Dec 16, 9,031,558 confirmed infections had been reported in the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions and Taiwan province: 482,878 in Hong Kong (11,107 had died and 105,143 had been cured and discharged from hospital), 1,365 in Macao (7 had died and 884 had been cured and discharged from hospital) and 8,547,315 in Taiwan (14,820 had died and 13,742 had been cured and discharged from hospital).