China Records Most COVID Patients Since Deadly Wuhan Outbreak; Cases Spiral In Hong Kong Too

Mainland China has logged its highest number of daily new local symptomatic COVID-19 infections in about two years, as the highly transmissible Omicron variant pressures its stringent policy to curb each outbreak quickly.

China reported 214 domestically transmitted cases with confirmed symptoms for Sunday, data from the National Health Commission showed on Monday.

Hong Kong logs over 31,000 COVID cases

Meanwhile, Hong Kong added 31,008 Covid cases and 153 deaths on Sunday. Although reported infection counts were less than 40,000 for the second straight day, after rising to more than 50,000 in the three days prior, officials said the decline could be due to unreported rapid testing results and because of the ¡°weekend effect.¡±

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That marks the highest daily caseload since Chinese authorities started in early March 2020 to count locally found infections and cases arriving from outside the mainland separately.

China's latest local virus flare-ups are tiny by global standards, and the country is sticking to its "dynamic-clearing" policy which requires local authorities to quickly identify and quarantine every infection and their close contacts and impose travel restrictions to cut off the transmission.

The majority of Sunday's 214 local cases were found in the provinces of Guangdong, Jilin, and Shandong.

The number of locally transmitted asymptomatic cases rose to 312 for Sunday, the highest daily number since China started in late March, 2020 to classify symptomless infections separately from confirmed cases.

There were no new deaths, leaving the death toll unchanged at 4,636.

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As of March 6, China had reported 111,195 cases with confirmed symptoms, including both local ones and those arriving from outside the mainland.

Global deaths near 6 million

A count of worldwide deaths from Covid-19 is nearing 6 million, though the actual number is much higher and unknowable as infections concentrate in Asian nations less affected by earlier viral waves.

Total global deaths recorded were at 5,998,428, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University and Bloomberg.

Each of the last million deaths has been punctuated by coronavirus variants -- first delta, then omicron.

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