Nation reports its highest daily case total in 3 months

The Chinese mainland reported 101 new confirmed COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, the highest daily figure in three months, with the majority of them in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.

Xinjiang reported 89 new cases, with another eight in Liaoning province, and one in Beijing, Chinese health authorities said on Wednesday. Another three were imported cases, two in Guangdong province and one in Shanghai.

Nearly half of the confirmed infections in Xinjiang, which were all in the region's capital Urumqi, involved previously identified asymptomatic carriers as the city's confirmed cases continue to grow, a health official told the virus prevention and control conference in Urumqi on Wednesday afternoon.

The city reported another 15 asymptomatic cases on Tuesday. By that day, the total number of confirmed cases stood at 320, and the number of asymptomatic cases at 130 since the outbreak started on July 15.

Yan Jun, director of the city's commerce bureau, said at the conference that more than 350 metric tons of mutton and beef will be inserted into the market from July 29 to Aug 12 to ensure abundant food supplies.

Food prices remain stable in Urumqi, and there are enough supplies on the market to meet the daily needs of the residents, Yan added.

"The price of meat seems cheaper than before," said Ma Zhongliang, who lives in Tianshan district, where the city's first confirmed cases were detected.

"I cannot go out because of the closed management in our community. Every time I want to buy some meat, the volunteer in our residential community can help me."