China reported 17 new cases of the novel coronavirus on Monday – three more than the day before. Of the newly-detected cases, seven are linked to overseas travel, and 10 are believed to be the result of local transmission.
In addition to five indigenous cases in Wuhan, three others came from Jilin province, one from Liaoning, which borders North Korea, and another from Heilongjiang province, which borders Russia.
While these figures might not sound so alarming considering that China was registering thousands of cases per day in February during the peak, it still marks the nation’s biggest jump in confirmed infections since April 28.
Dreaded comeback? #Wuhan reports 5 new #
coronavirus cases, its highest surge in 2 MONTHSOriginal hotspot of #COVID19 pandemic,Chinese city of Wuhan, has reported5 new indigenous cases as number of infections across China has slightly grown as wellhttps://t.co/LOwOO4GzPw
— The Contrarian 🇮🇳 (@Contrarian_View) May 11, 2020
The latest data from Wuhan, which just last month celebrated the recovery of the last patient with severe Covid-19, can also be seen as a worrying sign since it is the most significant increase in cases for the pandemic ground zero in two months.
The last time Wuhan reported more than five new cases in a single day (eight) was on March 11.
However, it was not until early April that the last remaining travel restrictions imposed on the city when it was fighting the outbreak were lifted after 76 days of lockdown. Around the same time, Wuhan for the first time reported zero daily deaths from the disease.
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Considering the steady drop in the number of new patients, Beijing has gradually relaxed coronavirus measures across the country, on Thursday declaring all of China to be ‘low risk’ in terms of coronavirus.
Coronavirus in Chinese cities other than Wuhan
Apart from Hubei, there has been a surge in infections in Shulan in the northeastern Jilin province, where all of the new cases are believed to be traced to a single woman. Concerned about a possible second wave of the disease, local authorities raised the risk level from low to medium last week.
The Chinese city where the coronavirus epidemic first broke out, Wuhan, ended a two-month lockdown, but a northern town started restricting the movement of its residents amid concerns of the second wave of infections in mainland China.
China sealed off Wuhan, a city of 11 million people, in late January to stop the spread of the virus. Over 50,000 people in Wuhan caught the virus, and more than 2,500 of them died, about 80% of all deaths in China, according to official figures.
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Restrictions have eased in recent days as the capital of Hubei province saw just three new confirmed infections in the past 21 days and only two new infections in the past fortnight.
But even as people leave the city, new imported cases in the northern province of Heilongjiang surged to a daily high of 25, fuelled by a continued influx of infected travelers arriving from Russia, which shares a land border with the province.
From the onset of the pandemic, China has reported a total of 82,918 cases, including 4,633 fatalities.
RT with additional input from GVS News Desk