China inducts highest daily coronavirus cases since July
A health worker walks past residents as they line up to be tested for the COVID-19 coronavirus in Beijing on January 11, 2021, following new cases of the virus emerging in the province which surrounds Beijing.
Mainland China witnessed its largest daily increase in the number of coronavirus cases in five months on Monday, the country's health authority reported. New infections in the Hebei province around Beijing have pushed the numbers up.
In addition, a county situated in northeastern Heilongjiang province on Monday slipped into a lockdown after new cases were reported.
Out of the 85 new infections reported on January 10, 82 came from the Hebei province, as stated by the National Health Commission (NHC). Liaoning province reported two new cases while Beijing reported one new case.
In addition, the country recorded 18 imported infections from outside the country.
China recorded 103 new cases of coronavirus, marking the highest tally since 127 cases were reported on July 30.
Even though this marks a small part of what was seen at the peak of the outbreak in the country in early 2020, authorities are now racing against time to avoid another outbreak.
On Thursday, a team of the World Health Organization is set to arrive in China to investigate the origins of the virus. Their arrival date was announced by NHC on Monday, without shedding light on their itinerary.
Also read:WHO experts to visit China from Thursday to investigate virus origin
China has been accused of covering up the intensity of the outbreak which first showed up in Wuhan in 2019. Many critics claimed that China's initial response to the virus is partly responsible for its global spread.
As winter conditions blanketed the country, new cases were reported across provinces. The port city of Dalian in Liaoning province blamed the cases on contaminated foreign vessels, claiming that the gene sequencing of the new cases varied from what they had seen in previous outbreaks in the country.
The total number of infections in Mainland China stands at 87,536. The death toll remains unchanged with 4,634 deaths.