While the number of people taking nucleic acid tests for COVID-19 increases significantly in Central China's Hubei province, fewer asymptomatic cases have been found. It shows that the remaining virus existing among crowds is no longer highly infectious, a disease control and prevention official said on Monday.
"A majority of the asymptomatic cases founded via mass testing in Hubei province are unapparent infection cases that have low infection rate," Feng Zijian, deputy director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said at a news conference in Wuhan, capital of Hubei.
Hubei has carried out COVID-19 nucleic acid tests about 4.3 million times from April 8 to Sunday and 733 asymptomatic cases have been found. Meanwhile, Wuhan has conducted such tests for more than 2.64 million times and 707 asymptomatic cases have been reported, Feng said.
By Sunday, the province hit hard by the novel coronavirus had conducted nucleic acid tests for COVID-19 6.39 million times.
The center has conducted research on the 665 asymptomatic cases found in Hubei from April 8 to Wednesday. Besides the six confirmed cases, 559 others were found to be in the recovery stage, Feng added.
"While the number of people going through nucleic acid tests for COVID-19 increases significantly in Hubei, the number of asymptomatic cases found is actually dropping. It shows the remaining virus has become weaker as routine early detecting and intervention measures have been put in place," he said.
The province will continue to push for mass nucleic acid testing and better manage asymptomatic cases, Wang Taihui, deputy secretary-general of Hubei provincial government, said at the news conference.
