Chinese Health Ministry on Thursday announced no new local transmission of the coronavirus disease for the first time in mainland China since the beginning of the pandemic that quickly swept throughout the whole world.
Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak, and its surrounding Hubei province reported no new domestic infections which can be a signal of the end of the outbreak in China.
However, the threat of new imported cases of those positive of the COVID-19 disease could cripple China’s progress as the National Health Commission reported 34 new cases in the past 24 hours, all involving people who came from abroad.
In recent weeks, China has been focusing its efforts to eradicate the disease in its borders by focusing more on the inbound travelers as a second wave of infections are almost guaranteed, according to experts, due to how the pathogen is easily transmitted.
In Hubei, eight more deaths were recently recorded, adding to a total of 3,245 deaths in the country, according to the health commission.
People infected by COVID-19 in China have been reported to be over 81,000 but only 7,236 patients remain in treatment as China continues its counter-epidemic efforts to fight the pandemic that began inside its borders.
The lockdowns in the country, described by Time as “draconian”, remains in place with at least 48 cities and four provinces have issued the quarantine policies that affected around 500 million people. However, the lockdowns in the country were also credited in slowing down the spread of the virus.
“The Chinese government is to be congratulated for the extraordinary measures it has taken to contain the outbreak, despite the severe social and economic impact those measures are having on the Chinese people,” said World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus a week after China implemented the lockdown.
Strict disease control and preventive measures must still be present as infections could re-emerge once the lockdowns are lifted across the country, according to China Daily, citing epidemiologist Li Lanjuan.
The country began loosening its travel restrictions since last week, but has implemented a strict 14-day quarantine on travelers inbound to Beijing, Shanghai and from overseas and required all disembarking passengers to submit to health checks.
The coronavirus disease that has swept through nations has infected around 215,000 individuals worldwide and has a recorded global death toll of around 8,700.