29 confirmed cases add to Anhui total

Anhui province reported 29 locally transmitted confirmed COVID-19 cases and 258 asymptomatic carriers on Sunday, according to provincial Health Commission data released on Monday morning.

As of Sunday, the province had reported 858 infections since June 26. There were 134 confirmed cases, including one imported from overseas, and 724 asymptomatic carriers, the commission reported.

All 29 local confirmed new cases were reported in Sixian county, which is governed by the city of Suzhou, while the new asymptomatic carriers were in the city's Sixian and Lingbi counties and Yongqiao district.

Although multiple regions in the eastern provinces of Anhui and Jiangsu have reported cases related to Sixian, there were no new cases transmitted from the county since June 26, when it reported the first case. It took restrictive measures, such as no unnecessary trips from home, according to the news conference on Sunday night.

The municipal authorities of Suzhou pledged on Monday afternoon to achieve zero transmission in communities outside quarantined areas within three days.

The county's seventh regional mass nucleic acid testing was scheduled to be conducted from 1 pm to 6 pm on Monday, the local government said.

Zhang Haoran and Chen Huilei in Hefei contributed to this story.