China reports zero daily deaths from coronavirus for the first time since January Milestone comes as nation struggles with ongoing outbreaks, including in Wuhan where dozens of residences have been locked down again.
As rates of infection dropped, authorities designated more than 7,000 residential compounds in Wuhan “epidemic-free”, allowing residents to leave their homes for two hours at a time. Travel restrictions were scheduled to lift on Wednesday, allowing people with green health codes to leave the city.
But on Monday, state news agency Xinhua said those designations had been revoked for 45 compounds due to the emergence of asymptomatic cases, among other unspecified reasons.
Chinese authorities have only recently changed their focus to asymptomatic cases, which until this month were not included in the tally of confirmed infections, despite being an estimated 18-31% of cases, according to Shanghai-based infectious disease doctor Zhang Wenhong.
Asymptomatic cases have only been included in the criteria for a residence being “epidemic-free” since 4 April.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/07/china-reports-zero-daily-deaths-from-coronavirus-for-the-first-time-since-january