China encountered cases of COVID-19 infections that have originated from overseas, particularly Italy, finding its way back into the country. Eight Chinese nationals in Qingtian county tested positive after traveling back from Italy, particularly from the city of Bergamo.
The eight individuals were workers at a restaurant in Bergamo. Six of them have reportedly taken flight from Milan to Shanghai. None of these patients were from Wuhan, neither have travel history in the epicenter of the outbreak.
With this development, Beijing said it will quarantine travelers coming from South Korea, Japan, Iran, and Italy. These are the countries with the highest number of infected people outside China. Shanghai and other Chinese provinces are to follow suit with their quarantine measures or ban on travelers coming from these countries.
On Wednesday local time, China's National Health Commission confirmed 119 new infected patients and 38 new deaths. This number is the lowest so far in the past weeks and Wednesday was the third day this week that China reported a lower number of new cases and deaths.
To date, the total number of infected people is 80,270; 49,856 people recovered while only 2,981 died.
In Hubei, officials noted that the recovery rate is now at 53.81%. A total of 36,167 patients in the province recovered according to the latest figures from the local government.
Chinese officials are not alone in their fight against the virus. On Tuesday, China's tech giants were ramping up efforts to develop technology that will hasten detection and cure of COVID-19. Alibaba, Baidu, Tencent, Huawei, and DiDi are utilizing artificial intelligence and cloud computing in a bid to launch means to diagnose cases faster and to find a vaccine.
Here's the cumulative number of infections and deaths in different Chinese provinces:
Hubei 67217 (deaths 2834)
Guangdong 1350 (7)
Henan 1272 (22)
Zhejiang 1213 (1)
Hunan 1018 (4)
Anhui 990 (6)
Jiangxi 935 (1)
Shandong 758 (6)
Jiangsu 631 (0)
Chongqing 576 (6)
Sichuan 538 (3)
Heilongjiang 480 (13)
Beijing 414 (8)
Shanghai 338 (3)
Hebei 318 (6)
Fujian 296 (1)
Guangxi 252 (2)
Shaanxi 245 (1)
Yunnan 174 (2)
Hainan 168 (5)
Guizhou 146 (2)
Tianjin 136 (3)
Shanxi 133 (0)
Liaoning 125 (1)
Hong Kong SAR 101 (2)
Jilin 93 (1)
Gansu 91 (2)
Xinjiang 76 (3)
Inner Mongolia 75
Ningxia 74
Taipei 42 1
Qinghai 18
Macao SAR 10
Xizang 1
South Korea has just reported 374 new cases as of Tuesday night, bringing the total number of cases in the Republic to 5,186.
Here are the total number of cases in the Western Pacific Region as of March 3:
Japan 268 (excluding patients from the Diamon Princess) (new cases 14)
Singapore 108 (2)
Australia 33 (6)
Malaysia 29 (5)
Viet Nam 16
Philippines 3
New Zealand 2 (1)
Cambodia 1
Meanwhile, India confirmed its sixth case of infection in an Italian national staying in the Indian state of Rajasthan.
Indonesia confirmed two cases of infection, ensuing panic among people as this is only the first time the country had cases since the outbreak started in December.
Here are the total number of cases in the Southeast Asian region as of March 3:
Thailand 43 (new case 1)
India 5 (2)
Indonesia (2)
Nepal (1)
Sri Lanka (1)
