Chinese mainland reports 1,334 new locally-transmitted Covid-19 cases

The Chinese mainland reported 1,334 new locally-transmitted COVID-19 infections on Friday, low compared to Thursday's 1,540 cases, the National Health Commission said on Saturday.

Of the local confirmed cases reported on Friday, 1,015 were in Shanghai, 248 in Jilin, 13 in Zhejiang, and six in Beijing, according to Xinhua News Agency.

The rest of the cases were reported in other 12 provincial-level regions.

A total of 16 new imported COVID-19 cases were reported across the mainland. On Friday, 23,815 new asymptomatic carriers were reported in the China mainland, including the 23,737 cases from the local ones and 78 were the imported ones, according to the commission.

Among the asymptomatic carriers, 22,609 were reported in Shanghai and 706 in Jilin.

A total of 1,996 COVID-19 patients were discharged from hospitals and 23,342 close contacts were discharged from medical observation on the Chinese mainland on Friday, the National Health Commission said Saturday, according to Xinhua.

Altogether 135,218 patients had been discharged from hospitals across the mainland after recovery by the end of Friday, according to the report.

Earlier, On April 3, China sent the military and thousands of healthcare workers into Shanghai city which has been facing the worst COVID-19 outbreak, according to the Chinese media outlet.

Citing Chinese People's Liberation Army Daily, Global Times reported that the country dispatched more than 2,000 medical staff to Shanghai in one of its biggest-ever public health responses.

The medical staff were drawn from seven medical units affiliated with the army, navy and joint logistics support force. Upon arrival in Shanghai, they quickly carried out medical treatment, nucleic acid testing and other essential tasks, the newspaper said.

According to Global Times, a Chinese Air Force heavy transport Y-20 aircraft was parked at an airport in Shanghai early Monday morning.

Regions including East China's Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, and Jiangxi provinces, North China's Tianjin, and Central China's Hubei province have also sent medical teams to help Shanghai combat the outbreak, with the total number of medical staff from other regions supporting Shanghai reaching about 10,000 as of Sunday, as per Global Times.