China reports record new coronavirus cases from abroad

China has intensified measures to guard against infections arriving from abroad as the coronavirus spread worldwide

BEIJING/SHANGHAI: China’s coronavirus infections from abroad hit a new daily record while infected travellers reached an unprecedented number of Chinese provinces, pressuring authorities to hold the bar high on already tough custom rules and public-health protocols.

China has intensified measures to guard against infections arriving from abroad as the coronavirus spread around the world, concerned that travellers might trigger a second wave of domestic infections just as the outbreak was controlled at home.

Mainland China had 39 new confirmed cases on Thursday, the country’s National Health Commission said, all of which were imported cases. There were no locally transmitted cases for the second day.

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Of the new imported infections, 14 were in Guangdong, eight in Shanghai and six in Beijing, the health authority said in a statement on Friday.

Big transport hubs like the Chinese capital, Shanghai, Guangdong, including Shenzhen, have been the main points of entry for cases involving infected travellers.

Wuhan, capital of central Hubei province and epicenter of the outbreak in China, saw zero new cases for the second day, the National Health Commission said.

That brings the total accumulated number of confirmed cases in mainland China so far to 80,967.

The death toll from the outbreak had reached 3,248 as of the end of Thursday, up by three from the previous day.