BEIJING (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 17th January, 2021) China on Sunday registered 109 new COVID-19 cases and no deaths over the past 24 hours, down from 130 cases reported a day prior.
According to data provided by the country's National Health Commission, 96 of them were local transmissions while 13 were imported cases. The provinces of Hebei and Heilongjiang, where lockdowns were imposed after local infection clusters were detected earlier this month, reported 72 and 12 cases respectively.
The commission said there are currently 1,205 active cases in the country, 42 of which are in serious condition. This is the highest number in both metrics since last summer when transmissions petered out to a halt.
This puts the daily tally on a three-day downward trend as the past two days have posted 144 and 130 cases consecutively.
Chinese authorities took no chances when an uptick of transmissions was detected in the Hebei province, surrounding the capital Beijing, and placed some 20 million people in two large cities under strict lockdown. Health services have since begun mass testing the entire population of Shijiazhuang and Xingtai.
