The National Health Commission reported six fresh coronavirus cases and 17 asymptomatic infections in China on Monday.
Hubei province's capital Wuhan, where the virus emerged in December last year, has a total of seven cases, the local health commission said. The city also has over 285 asymptomatic cases which prompted the local officials to go for mass testing of local population after the 76-day lockdown was lifted last month.
All the 17 new asymptomatic cases are domestic ones.
A total of 389 asymptomatic cases, including 29 from overseas, were still under medical observation, the NHC said. Asymptomatic cases pose a problem as the patients are tested COVID-19 positive but develop no symptoms such as fever, cough or sore throat.
The death toll from the coronavirus in the country stands at 4,634.
This development comes a day after China agreed to be investigated by the World Health Organisation for the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic. China’s leader Xi Jinping urged at a virtual meeting with the world health authority that the world should rally behind the WHO and support developing nations to battle the pandemic. The WHO a decision-making body of the World Health Organisation, held their annual meeting between May 18 and 19. And the virtual meeting was attended by delegations from all member states of WHO. The focus of the meeting was prepared by WHA’s executive board.
China has been facing criticism from Western nations and other countries for not being transparent regarding the origin of the novel coronavirus. At the meeting Xi Jinping also pledged $2billion to countries in need for fighting the coronavirus.
China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said, “Recently, the EU submitted a draft resolution COVID-19 response to the 73rd WHA. All parties have reached consensus on the text .”
“On the issue of the origin of the virus, all parties have agreed to International Heath Regulation emergency committee suggested wording and ask the WHO chief to working call close collaboration with World Organisation for Animal Health and the Food and Agricultural Organisation, and all countries to find out the animal source and transmission roots of the virus through field investigations and find out the possible intermediary host.”
China believe new drug can cure COVID-19
According to an AFP report, a Chinese laboratory has been developing a drug it believes can bring the coronavirus pandemic to a halt.
The drug is currently being tested at China’s pecking University. The drug could possibly shorten recovery time for those infected and offer short-term immunity from the virus. “ When we injected neutralising antibodies to infected mice, after five days the viral load was reduced by a factor of 2,500,” said Sunney Xie, Director of the universities Beijing Advanced Innovation Centre for Genomics.
The drug uses neutralising antibodies, isolated from the blood of 60 recovered patients, that prevent the virus from infecting cells.
