Dec 21: Daily Briefing on Novel Coronavirus Cases in China

On Dec 20, 31 provincial-level regions and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps on the Chinese mainland reported 23 new cases of confirmed infections (21 imported cases, 8 in Shanghai municipality, 6 in Inner Mongolia autonomous region, 3 in Guangdong province, 2 in Fujian province, 1 in Shanxi province and 1 in Sichuan province; 2 indigenous cases, 1 in Liaoning province and 1 in Heilongjiang province), 4 new cases of suspected infections (all were imported cases in Shanghai), and no deaths. 14 patients were released from hospital after being cured. 459 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 20, 31 provincial-level regions and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps on the Chinese mainland had reported 4,136 cases of imported confirmed infections and no deaths. In all, 3,859 patients had been cured and discharged from hospital. There still remained 277 confirmed cases (including 3 cases in serious condition) and 7 suspected cases.

As of 24:00 on Dec 20, the National Health Commission had received reports of 86,852 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 81,900 patients had been cured and discharged from hospital. There still remained 318 confirmed cases (including 4 cases in serious condition) and 7 suspected cases. 891,801 people had been identified as having had close contact with infected patients. 6,927 were still under medical observation.

On Dec 20, 31 provincial-level regions and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps on the Chinese mainland reported 15 new asymptomatic cases (including 10 imported cases). 11 asymptomatic cases were freed from medical observation (all were imported cases) and 1 (indigenous case) became a confirmed case. As of 24:00 on Dec 20, 208 asymptomatic cases were still under medical observation (including 182 imported cases).

As of 24:00 on Dec 20, 8,964 confirmed infections had been reported in the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions and Taiwan province: 8,152 in Hong Kong (130 had died and 6,837 had been cured and discharged from hospital), 46 in Macao (all had been cured and discharged from hospital) and 766 in Taiwan (7 had died and 627 had been cured and discharged from hospital).