Mainland Sees Qingdao Hotspot Among Covid Cases

The National Health Commission (NHC) reported 175 locally transmitted Covid cases for Saturday, up from 102 on Friday. Eighty-eight of the new local cases were in the port city of Qingdao, in Shandong province.

The Qingdao outbreak was mainly among middle school students in Laixi county, the city's Municipal Health Commission said.

Laixi county will implement a second round of mass testing on March 7, a Qingdao official told a news conference on Sunday, adding that there was no major risk of further outbreaks.

China's "dynamic clearance" approach to COVID-19 aims to shut off transmission routes as soon as new cases are detected.

The Qingdao outbreak helped send the mainland's total local confirmed case count to its highest since December 31, with other cases reported mainly in Jilin, Guangdong and Hebei provinces, according to the NHC.

In total the mainland recorded 329 new confirmed coronavirus cases on March 5, compared with 281 a day earlier.

The number of new asymptomatic cases, which the mainland does not classify as confirmed cases, stood at 209 versus 166 a day earlier.

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

As of March 5, the mainland had confirmed 110,868 cases. (Reuters)