Beijing: Wuhan, the original epicentre of the new coronavirus outbreak in China, reported on Monday its first cluster of infections since a lockdown on the central Chinese city was lifted a month ago, stoking concerns of a wider resurgence of the disease.
The new infections add a layer of caution to efforts to lower coronavirus-related restrictions across China as businesses restart and individuals go back to work.
Wuhan reported five new confirmed cases, all of whom live in the same residential compound. One of them was the wife of an 89-year-old male patient reported a day earlier in the first confirmed case in the city since April 3.
All of the latest confirmed cases were previously classified as asymptomatic, people who test positive for the virus and are capable of infecting others but do not show clinical signs such as a fever.
The number of asymptomatic cases in China is not known, as they only appear on the radar of health officials when they show up positive during tests conducted as part of contact tracing and health checks.
China does not include asymptomatic cases in its overall tally of confirmed cases, currently at 82,918, until they exhibit signs of infection. Mainland China has reported 4,633 deaths.
Hundreds of asymptomatic cases in Wuhan, which was released on April 8 from a months-long lockdown, are currently being monitored, according to the city’s health authority.
The number of new cases reported in China since April have been small compared with the thousands confirmed each day in February, thanks to a nationwide regime of screening, testing and quarantine.
The government said on Friday that China will gradually reopen cinemas, museums and other recreational venues, though restrictions including mandatory reservations and a limit on numbers will be in place.
Shanghai has already reopened some night entertainment venues such as discotheques. Walt Disney Co (DIS.N) on Monday reopened its Shanghai Disneyland park, though to a reduced number of visitors.
New outbreaks in China in the past two months have mainly developed in residential compounds or at hospitals.
Meanwhile, a local official was sacked for poor management of the Wuhan city after the six new infections were reported, the state-run media reported on Monday.
Zhang Yuxin, who was the secretary and member of the Changqing Street working committee of the ruling Communist Party of China, was removed from the post after the cases emerged in the Sanmin residential community in Wuhan, capital of Hubei province, the Xinhua news agency reported.
Zhang was sacked for his poor management of the closing-off and control of the residential community, which had previously reported 20 COVID-19 cases, it said.
Northeast China
The Wuhan cases helped push the overall new COVID-19 infections confirmed on May 10 to 17, the highest daily increase since April 28.
Of the new cases, seven were so-called imported cases in the northern Chinese region of Inner Mongolia involving travellers from overseas, compared with two reported a day earlier.
Northeastern Jilin province, which on Saturday reported a cluster of infections in one of its cities, Shulan, reported three additional local cases.
Shulan has been marked a high-risk area, the only place in China with that designation so far, after all cities in the country were declared as low-risk days earlier.
One of the three cases confirmed in the province on May 10 was from Shulan. The other two were from the city of Jilin uncovered through contact tracing of people who were in contact with earlier Shulan cases.
Nearby Liaoning and Heilongjiang provinces each reported one case, adding to worries about a resurgence of the outbreak in the region.
A 70-year-old patient in Harbin, capital of Heilongjiang, had tested negative seven times before results turned positive.
In China, the number of new asymptomatic COVID-19 cases fell to 12 on May 10 compared with 20 reported a day earlier.
