ANKARA

China reported 31,709 new coronavirus infections on Saturday, while 1,893 patients were released from hospital care after fully recovering in the last 24 hours.

Of total new cases, only 3,474 exhibited symptoms, the National Health Commission (NHC) said in a written statement, adding that over 11.4 million people had been "identified as having had close contact with infected patients."

It noted that more than 1.6 million people are still under medical observation, while 12,624 asymptomatic cases were "freed from medical observation" on Friday.

In Xinjiang, an autonomous territory in northwestern China, local officials said COVID-19 cases were cleared from the regional capital Urumqi at the community level and that order would be restored to the lives of residents in low-risk areas "in a phased manner," according to Global Times.

While the officials said the city still contained high-risk areas, they said there were still about 100 daily confirmed infections over the past two days.

High-risk areas revert back to the low-risk level once no new COVID-19 infections are identified for five straight days.

China, with a population of over 1.4 billion, confirmed 304,093 COVID-19 cases to date.

The death toll in the country stands at 5,232, while as many as 269,116 people have recovered from the virus.