SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Mainland China reported 26 new cases of COVID-19 on April 2, up from nine a day earlier, the country’s national health authority said on Saturday, as southern officials -west of the country related a local outbreak to Myanmar.
The National Health Commission said seven of the new cases were local infections in Yunnan province, where a COVID-19 cluster has emerged in the city of Ruili, bordering Myanmar.
Genetic analysis of cases in Ruili suggests that they came from viruses imported from Myanmar and are unrelated to other outbreaks recently located in China, state media reported, citing a press conference.
Ruili is a key transit point for Yunnan Province, which has struggled to control its 4,000km border with Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam to detect illegal immigration amid a wave of unauthorized steps in the year passed by people seeking refuge for the pandemic. .
The city has imposed domestic quarantine, exit restrictions and massive tests. By Saturday, it had identified 3,650 close contacts and secondary contacts of cases, state media reported.
The other 19 new infections in mainland China were imported, the National Health Commission said.
The number of new asymptomatic cases, which China does not classify as confirmed cases, rose from 24 to 20.
Confirmed cases of COVID-19 in mainland China now stand at 90,252, and the unchanged death toll is 4,636.
Reports by Andrew Galbraith; Edited by William Mallard