BEIJING, March 13 — China’s Wuhan city, ground zero of the new coronavirus outbreak, reported five new cases today, the second day in a row the tally has been less than 10, while no locally transmitted infections were reported in the rest of the country.
Wuhan, capital of central Hubei province, registered the five new cases yesterday, the National Health Commission said, down from eight cases the previous day. The commission routinely reports new cases the day after the data is collected.
Excluding Wuhan, Hubei has reported no new infections for eight consecutive days.
The commission said yesterday China’s coronavirus epidemic had passed its peak, even as alarm over the virus intensified elsewhere with global markets suffering record falls and governments unveiling measures to try to slow the spread of a disease that has infected more than 127,000 people worldwide.
The financial hub of Shanghai reported two new cases, while Beijing saw one, all imported by people travelling to China from affected areas abroad, the health authority said.
Those cases brought the total number of new infections in mainland China to eight yesterday, down from 15 the previous day, and the lowest since the healthy authority started publishing nationwide figures in January.
To date, the total accumulated number of cases in mainland China is 80,813.
The coronavirus has killed more than 3,000 people in mainland China.
It had also stalled the world’s second-largest economy as, beginning in January, authorities ordered work stoppages, travel restrictions and home quarantines to contain the spread of the pathogen.
As the tough counter-epidemic measures start to pay off, local governments have been ordered to revive their economies, especially those in areas that have not had to deal with extensive virus outbreaks.
Hubei province has started to loosen the strict controls that kept up to 60 million people under a virtual lock-down for weeks.
Wuhan has seen some restrictions relaxed this week and the nearby city of Huanggang, which also had numerous coronavirus cases, today begun relaxing its lockdown, saying that residents could start travelling within the city.
Outside Hubei, about 60 per cent of small- and medium-sized firms and 95 per cent of large ones have gone back to work, vice industry minister Xin Guobin said today.
As China gets domestic economic activity back to normal it will also coordinate with other countries to push forward on resuming business as the pandemic stokes concern about China’s prospects, Xin said.
The death toll in mainland China reached 3,176 as of the end of yesterday, up by seven from the previous day.
In Hubei, there were six new deaths, with Wuhan accounting for all of them.
Authorities have urged the public to sweep their ancestors’ tombs remotely, by asking workers to do it for them, instead of flocking to cemeteries for the Qingming tomb-sweeping festival on April 4.
“We will arrange free services at cemeteries, the staff will offer free tomb cleaning and free flowers,” said Li Quanxi, an official at Beijing’s civil affair bureau.
“We want to encourage people to transform social traditions amid the coronavirus outbreak.” — Reuters
