China on Thursday reported no new domestic transmissions of coronavirus for the first time since the deadly virus surfaced three months ago, achieving a milestone in its battle against the pandemic that has brought the country to a grinding halt and caused an unprecedented global health crisis.
While no domestic cases were reported, Wuhan, where the outbreak began, still has 6,636 people in hospitals including 1,809 in severe condition and 465 in critical condition, local health commission said.
China now faces a greater threat of infections of imported cases, which jumped by 34 on Wednesday with large number of Chinese and foreigners arriving back to join their duties.
While zero domestic cases is a major milestone, which heralds the end of domestically generated Covid-19 cases, China, however, continues to grapple with mounting death toll which climbed to 3,245 on Wednesday with eight more fatalities.
The overall confirmed cases on the mainland reached 80,928 by the end of Wednesday highlighting the scale of the cases China dealt with, making coronavirus perhaps the worst health tragedy in the country’s history.
The total included 3,245 people who died of the disease 7,263 patients still undergoing treatment and 70,420 patients discharged after recovery.
By the end of Wednesday, 192 confirmed cases including four deaths had been reported in Hong Kong, 15 confirmed cases in the Macao and 100 in Taiwan including one death, China’s National Health Commission (NHC) said.
Over 42,000 medical personnel including hundreds of doctors and nurses drawn from different parts of the country and the military were deployed in Wuhan and Hubei to bring the virus under control.
Over 3,000 medical staff were reported to have contracted the virus with 10 deaths.
Over 56 million people belonging to area continued to languish in lockdown situation with a ban on all public and private transportation since January 23.