Dozen new cases lowest tally in weeks

The Chinese mainland recorded 12 new locally transmitted confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Monday, the first day with less than 20 since Jan 8, according to data released by the National Health Commission on Tuesday.

Hebei province, which has been severely hit by a cluster infection since the beginning of this year, recorded no new locally transmitted confirmed cases or asymptomatic carriers of COVID-19 on Monday.

About 55 percent of 1,000 large enterprises and over 80 percent of supermarkets and wholesale markets for agricultural products in Shijiazhuang, Hebei's provincial capital, had resumed operation by Tuesday, said Meng Xianghong, the city's vice-mayor.

All 12 cases recorded on Monday were in Northeast China－eight in Heilongjiang province and four in Jilin province－data from the commission showed.

Jilin has contained the spread of a regional outbreak of COVID-19 clusters in the province, officials said on Tuesday.

"The province has seen a dramatic decline in newly detected infected cases of the virus since Jan 29," said Zhao Qinglong, an official with the provincial center for disease control and prevention. "And all the cases were found among people under centralized quarantine."

The four new cases in Jilin took the provincial total to 348 as of Monday, 34 of whom are in serious condition, the provincial health commission said.

In neighboring Heilongjiang, samples collected from some frozen foods in a supermarket in Jiamusi during regular screening of frozen food in markets have tested positive for novel coronavirus, the city's epidemic prevention and control headquarters said.

The supermarket hid the origin information of the infected frozen food, which was linked to a food company connected to recent cluster infections in Harbin, Heilongjiang's provincial capital.

Samples of meat products from Heilongjiang Charoen Pokphand and cooked wheat products from Shandong Tanghe Food tested positive for the coronavirus, the headquarters said. Some of the products were sold between Jan 11 and 31.

It arranged for the collection of samples from various people and the environment and has collected around 1,500 samples so far, with all results coming back negative.

Part of Harbin was classified as a high-risk area from noon on Tuesday.

As of Monday, there were 522 confirmed cases and 529 asymptomatic carriers in the province.

Ninety-eight COVID-19 patients had been discharged from hospital, Liu Yancheng, a provincial health commission official, said on Tuesday, adding that they had been transferred to a designated hospital for 14 days of medical observation before they can go home.

After returning home, they will need to monitor their health conditions for 14 days and avoid outdoor activities, he added.

As of Tuesday, there were 11 high-risk areas across the country－seven in Heilongjiang, one in Jilin, two in Hebei and one in Beijing.

Han Junhong in Changchun contributed to this story.