Covid-19: China's daily local infections exceed 1,000-mark as symptomless cases spike

Mainland China reported over 1,000 new local Covid-19 infections on Friday, the highest daily count since Beijing contained its first national outbreak in early 2020, driven by a jump in asymptomatic infections amid the spread of the Omicron variant.

The size of the latest outbreak is much smaller than many others outside mainland China. China detected 703 domestically transmitted asymptomatic infections for Thursday, according to data from the health authority on Friday, up from 435 a day earlier.

That marks a sharp increase from a daily average of about 10 such cases in the first two months this year, Reuters calculations showed.

Another 397 local symptomatic cases, which China classifies separately from symptomless infections, were reported for March10, the National Health Commission said.

“Infections in vaccinated individuals are more likely to be asymptomatic than infections in unvaccinated individuals, and vaccine coverage is now very high in China,” said Ben Cowling, an epidemiology professor at the University of Hong Kong.

Around 87 per cent of China’s 1.4 billion population have received complete doses for primary vaccination as of late February, and around 40 per cent of the population has received a booster shot.

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As of March 10, mainland China had reported 112,940 cases with confirmed symptoms, including both local ones and those arriving from abroad.