Hebei records 54 new confirmed cases

North China's Hebei province reported 54 new local confirmed COVID-19 cases and 6 asymptomatic carriers on Monday, increasing its caseload of confirmed patients to 769 and asymptomatic carriers under medical observation to 182, according to the Health Commission of Hebei.

The new cases were confirmed in 24 hours on Sunday. The number of confirmed cases for a single-day's rise has fallen for two consecutive days, down from 72 on Saturday and 90 on Friday.

Among the new confirmed cases, 52 are in Shijiazhuang, 27 of whom were previously diagnosed as asymptomatic carriers, and the rest are in Xingtai city.

Only one of the new asymptomatic carriers are in Xingtai and the rest in Shijiazhuang.

Most of the new confirmed cases in Shijiazhuang are still in villages of Gaocheng district, while some are from neighboring Xinle, a county-level city in Shijiazhuang, and other districts, according to their movements tracked by local authorities.

The Changshou Street in Xinle was designated as a high-risk area on Sunday by the province's health commission. As of Sunday, the province had two high-risk areas - Gaocheng district and the Changshou Street in Xinle - and dozens of medium-risk areas, most of which are residential communities and villages.

The two new cases in Xingtai are from Longyao county, about 60 kilometers of west of Nangong, the county-level city in Xingtai that had been hit by the virus following Shijiazhuang. The two in Longyao are the first cases that were reported outside Nangong.

Starting on Monday, Longyao will carry out a countywide mass testing on all of its residents, after which residents will stay at home for self quarantine, according to a notice by the county's counter-virus organ.

The province has reported new cases for 16 consecutive days since this new outbreak of COVID-19 started in the beginning of the year.