March 17: Daily Briefing on Novel Coronavirus Cases in China

On March 16, 31 provincial-level regions and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps on the Chinese mainland reported 4 new cases of confirmed infections (all were imported cases, 2 in Sichuan province, 1 in Shanghai municipality and 1 in Fujian province), 4 new cases of suspected infections (all were imported cases in Shanghai), and no deaths. 10 patients were released from hospital after being cured. 411 people who had had close contact with infected patients were freed from medical observation. The number of serious cases remained unchanged.

As of 24:00 on March 16, 31 provincial-level regions and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps on the Chinese mainland had reported 5,163 cases of imported confirmed infections and no deaths. In all, 4,990 patients had been cured and discharged from hospital. There still remained 173 confirmed cases (no cases in serious condition) and 4 suspected cases.

As of 24:00 on March 16, the National Health Commission had received reports of 90,066 confirmed cases and 4,636 deaths in 31 provincial-level regions and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps on the Chinese mainland, and in all 85,254 patients had been cured and discharged from hospital. There still remained 176 confirmed cases (no cases in serious condition) and 4 suspected cases. 984,232 people had been identified as having had close contact with infected patients. 4,178 were still under medical observation.

On March 16, 31 provincial-level regions and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps on the Chinese mainland reported 15 new asymptomatic cases (all were imported cases). 4 asymptomatic cases were freed from medical observation (all were imported cases) and 1 (imported case) became a confirmed case. As of 24:00 on March 16, 270 asymptomatic cases were still under medical observation (all were imported cases).

As of 24:00 on March 16, 12,367 confirmed infections had been reported in the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions and Taiwan province: 11,329 in Hong Kong (203 had died and 10,786 had been cured and discharged from hospital), 48 in Macao (47 had been cured and discharged from hospital) and 990 in Taiwan (10 had died and 951 had been cured and discharged from hospital).