Riyaz ul Khaliq
27 March 2020•Update: 27 March 2020
ANKARA
Only one of the 55 new coronavirus cases reported in China over the past 24 hours was locally transmitted, the country’s health authorities said Friday.
In a statement, China’s National Health Commission (NHC) said the local transmission case was found in eastern Zhejiang province, while 54 others were people who had come to the country from abroad.
The NHC had found no locally transmitted COVID-19 case for the past several days.
The commission reported five deaths in the country over the past 24 hours, four of them in Wuhan, where the virus emerged last December.
The number of COVID-19 cases in China since December is now 81,340, while the death toll is 3,292, according to the statement.
A total of 74,588 patients have recovered and been discharged from hospitals across the country.
The NHC said 595 of China’s COVID-19 cases were people from overseas.
A total of 33 cases were reported in Macau and 10 of the patients have been discharged from hospitals, according to the commission.
It said Taiwan has had 252 cases, with two deaths and 29 recoveries.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong reported 65 new cases on Friday, its highest daily tally to date, the South China Morning Post reported.
The new cases, most of whom were people coming from abroad, raised the total to 518.
Four patients have died in Hong Kong so far, while 110 have recovered.
The novel coronavirus has now spread to at least 176 countries and territories, according to data compiled by the U.S.-based Johns Hopkins University.
The data shows more than 549,600 cases have been reported worldwide since last December, with the death toll above 24,800 and over 127,500 recoveries.
