Yesterday, a spokesman for the National Health Commission of China, Mei Feng, said that the increasing number of new infections with the emerging coronavirus had raised the possibility of the country experiencing a second outbreak at a time when the transmission of infection had almost stopped locally.
He added, "China already has 693 cases from abroad, which means that the possibility of a new outbreak is still relatively large."
The commission's data shows that during the past seven days, China recorded 313 cases of infection coming from abroad, compared to only six domestic infections.
China recorded 45 new cases of the Coronavirus, the day before yesterday, all of them for individuals coming from outside the country, except for one case, down from 54 the previous day.
Most of the cases coming from abroad are for Chinese people returning home, and airlines have been ordered to cut international flights significantly starting yesterday, and restrictions have been applied to foreigners arriving in the country.
Five people died, the day before yesterday, all of them in Wuhan, the industrial center where the epidemic appeared last December, but Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province, announced the detection of only one new infection with the Corona virus during the past 10 days.
The total number of deaths due to the virus on the Chinese mainland was 3300 in total, while the number of infections reached 81,439.
The day before yesterday was the fourth consecutive day in which Hubei province did not record any confirmed new infections, and the only recorded case of local transmission of infection appeared in Henan Province, adjacent to Hubei.
With the lifting of traffic restrictions in Hubei, Wuhan gradually began reopening the border, resuming operation of some transportation services, all airports in Hubei returned to work, and received some domestic flights, except for Tianhe Airport in Wuhan.