China reports zero new domestic COVID-19 cases
Image from Xinhua News Agency (in Chinese) showing “109 members of the Guizhou Aidu Medical Team…these heroes who have fought in Wuhan for more than a month” on a special charter flight to take them home.
The Guardian reports:
For the first time since the coronavirus outbreak started, China has reported no new domestic transmissions of Covid-19, a major milestone in the country’s fight against the pandemic.
China’s national health commission said on Thursday there were 34 new cases, but all were recent overseas arrivals. In Hubei, the Chinese province where the outbreak began, there were no new cases of any kind during Wednesday.
On Wednesday officials in Hubei’s Wuhan city, where the pandemic began late last year, loosened restrictions further, allowing people in residential compounds deemed “virus free” to leave their homes to conduct individual “personal activities” in staggered groups within the grounds, at certain times of the day. In areas that have been without infections for seven consecutive days, residents can go out freely as long as they do not gather in groups. Officials said 5,600 residential areas, or 78% of the residential areas in the city, are virus-free.
Two comments:
“When Chinese official sources report numbers amidst an unprecedented propaganda campaign and with existential risk to CCP rule on the table, don’t take them literally. Take them as what authorities want you to think and repeat,” tweeted Graham Webster, editor-in-chief, Stanford New America DigiChina Project.
“‘I think it is too early to celebrate. It is likely that a second wave has already started in China, but it may be too early to detect it at the moment,’ said Ben Cowling, professor of epidemiology at the University of Hong Kong School of Public Health,” per the South China Morning Post.
More:
- China hits a coronavirus milestone: No new local infections / NYT (porous paywall)
- Coronavirus: Italy’s death toll overtakes China’s / BBC
