China reports 34 new coronavirus cases

China has reported 14 new coronavirus cases including one from the first COVID-19 epicentre of Hubei province, taking the number of infections in the country to 82,901, while over 4,630 people have succumbed to the disease, health officials said on Sunday.

According to China's National Health Commission (NHC), 12 cases were domestically transmitted, with 11 reported from Jilin Province and one in Hubei Province, the first COVID-19 epicentre which has remained free from coronavirus infections for the last 35 days.

A total of 14 new confirmed COVID-19 cases were reported in the country on Saturday. Also on Saturday, 20 new asymptomatic cases were reported. As of Saturday, 794 asymptomatic cases, including 48 from overseas, were still under medical observation, the NHC said.

Hubei province has 628 asymptomatic cases, the highest in the country.

Asymptomatic cases refer to people who are tested 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.

As of Saturday, Hubei had reported 68,129 confirmed COVID-19 cases in total, including 50,334 from its capital Wuhan where the first COVID-19 case was reported in December last year.

The death toll from the virus in the province stood at 4,512, including 3,869 in Wuhan, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

The overall death toll from coronavirus cases in China remained at 4,633 as new fatalities were reported, while the total number of cases increased to 82,901, including 148 patients who were still undergoing treatment.

Globally, a total of 279,311 people have died and more than 4 million people have been infected by the coronavirus, according to Johns Hopkins University data.