Dec 17: Daily briefing on novel coronavirus cases in China

On Dec 16, 31 provincial-level regions and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps on the Chinese mainland reported 7 new cases of confirmed infections (all were imported cases, 6 in Shanghai municipality and 1 in Guangdong province), 1 new case of suspected infections (an indigenous case in Heilongjiang province), and no deaths. 21 patients were released from hospital after being cured. 358 people who had had close contact with infected patients were freed from medical observation. Serious cases decreased by 1.

As of 24:00 on Dec 16, 31 provincial-level regions and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps on the Chinese mainland had reported 4,068 cases of imported confirmed infections and no deaths. In all, 3,808 patients had been cured and discharged from hospital. There still remained 260 confirmed cases (including 5 cases in serious condition) and 3 suspected cases.

As of 24:00 on Dec 16, the National Health Commission had received reports of 86,777 confirmed cases and 4,634 deaths in 31 provincial-level regions and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps on the Chinese mainland, and in all 81,842 patients had been cured and discharged from hospital. There still remained 301 confirmed cases (including 7 cases in serious condition) and 4 suspected cases. 889,386 people had been identified as having had close contact with infected patients. 6,792 were still under medical observation.

On Dec 16, 31 provincial-level regions and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps on the Chinese mainland reported 6 new asymptomatic cases (including 4 imported cases). 7 asymptomatic cases were freed from medical observation (including 6 imported cases) and no asymptomatic cases became confirmed cases. As of 24:00 on Dec 16, 198 asymptomatic cases were still under medical observation (including 179 imported cases).

As of 24:00 on Dec 16, 8,598 confirmed infections had been reported in the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions and Taiwan province: 7,803 in Hong Kong (123 had died and 6,439 had been cured and discharged from hospital), 46 in Macao (all had been cured and discharged from hospital) and 749 in Taiwan (7 had died and 612 had been cured and discharged from hospital).