China reports 17 new COVID-19 cases

China has reported 17 new coronavirus cases, including 16 asymptomatic ones in the COVID-19 epicentre Hubei province, health officials said on Friday.

China's National Health Commission (NHC) said that one locally transmitted confirmed COVID-19 case was reported in Jilin Province on Thursday.

Sixteen new asymptomatic cases were reported in the Hubei province, taking the total number of such infections in the country to 845. All such cases are under medical observation.

With these new asymptomatic cases, total number of such infections in the province reached to 629, it said.

Asymptomatic cases refer to people who are COVID-19 positive but develop no symptoms such as fever, cough or sore throat. However, they pose a risk of spreading the disease to others.

Hubei province, which has a population of over 56 million, was kept under lockdown from January 23 to contain the virus.

The provincial capital Wuhan's lockdown was lifted on April 8 after which the city of 11 million people limped back to normal.

Hubei has not reported any confirmed COVID-19 case for the last 34 days, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

As of Thursday, there were no existing confirmed COVID-19 cases in the province, local health commission said.

The province has reported 68,128 confirmed COVID-19 cases in total, including 50,333 in Wuhan.

The death toll in China due to the virus remained at 4,633 China as no new fatalities were reported on Thursday, while the country has so far recorded 82,886 confirmed cases, NHC said, adding that 219 people are still undergoing treatment in hospitals.