Over the weekend, Guangdong Province reported its first batch of Covid-19 cases in which the patients showed no symptoms. A total of 398 individuals who were tested and confirmed to be infected were shown to be asymptomatic.
On April 12, Health Commission of Guangdong Province director Duan Yufei presented an update on the province’s Covid-19 situation, as well as statistics related to asymptomatic cases. This marked the first time the province has ever provided the public with numbers on these cases.
As of April 11, Guangdong Province has performed 3.6 million nucleic acid tests to detect Covid-19.
Duan claimed that the Guangdong government had not recorded any cases where asymptomatic individuals had transmitted the infection.
However, Duan’s statement runs counter to statements from the Novel Coronavirus Response and Coordination Center of Macau. The Macau center had previously shown that asymptomatic patients were, in fact, capable of transmitting the virus to others.
On Sunday, another 31 new asymptomatic infections were discovered in the province, including 29 cases in Guangzhou, one in Shenzhen and another in Foshan.
With an average of 30 asymptomatic cases per day, the province says it is still ready to resume manufacturing and production. Renowned Chinese epidemiologist Zhong Nanshan has supported these statements.
Zhong, who has been a leading voice on Covid-19 in the mainland, said that both Guangdong Province and the city of Guangzhou had taken early precautions to detect asymptomatic cases. These measures included examining all the relatives of confirmed cases.
As of 4 p.m. yesterday, mainland China has recorded 2,088 cases and 1,064 asymptomatic cases. In mainland China, people who test positive for the virus but do not have any symptoms are not classified as confirmed cases. This contrasts with practices in Macau and Hong Kong, as well as South Korea, Japan and Singapore.
Amid the concerns over the legitimacy of mainland China’s Covid-19 statistics, the country is still keen to return to normal life, and production and manufacturing. Zhong also hinted at this in his most recent comments on the mainland’s measures. “We can’t always enforce restrictive measures, otherwise it will cause a rather heavy impact on both the economy and people’s lives. We can’t return to the past [no work and no manufacturing] just because of one or several cases,” said Zhong. JZ
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