China reports zero new domestic coronavirus cases for the first time

China on March 18, marked a major milestone in its battle against the deadly coronavirus outbreak as it recorded no new domestic infections for the first time nearly after three months since the virus emerged in the country. China's National Health Commission (NHC), in its daily report on March 19, said no new domestically transmitted cases of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) were reported on the Chinese mainland on March 18.

Zero cases

It, however, said 34 new confirmed COVID-19 cases were reported but they were all from those arriving from other countries. Wuhan, which sore the seed of the outbreak in December last year, also reported zero cases on March 18, marking a notable first in the city's months-long battle with the deadly virus, the state media reported. Globally, the disease continues to spread with 8,969 dead and over 2,19,000 infected.

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The Health Commission of the Hubei Province said the total confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus disease in Wuhan and Hubei remained at 50,005 and 67,800 respectively on Wednesday. The NHC said that with 34 confirmed cases from the people arriving from abroad, the number of imported cases in China rose to 189.

Of the 34 newly imported cases, 21 were reported in Beijing, nine in the Guangdong Province, two in Shanghai, one in the Heilongjiang Province and one in the Zhejiang Province, it said. China so far has reported a total of 80,928 confirmed cases of coronavirus, of which 3,245 have died, while 70,420 patients have been discharged after treatment. Wuhan and its 11 million people were placed under strict medical examination on January 23, with more than 40 million other people in the rest of Hubei province entering lockdown in the following days.

The rest of China also adopted tough measures to limit public gatherings and events. On March 10, President Xi Jinping visited Wuhan for the first time since the pandemic outbreak began and declared that the spread of the disease was "basically curbed". On the same day, Hubei officials allowed people to travel within the province for the first time since January, excluding Wuhan.

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