China registers 144 new COVID-19 cases, 113 asymptomatic infections

Chinese health officials on Thursday registered 144 new COVID-19 cases in addition to 113 cases of asymptomatic infections detected over the past 24 hours.

This is up from 103 new symptomatic and 58 asymptomatic cases registered the previous day. No deaths were attributed to the disease.

The northern Heilongjiang province registered the highest number of cases showing symptoms at 68, while the neighbouring Jilin and Hebei provinces posted 33 and 20 cases respectively, according to a daily update from China's National Health Commission.

The commission's data showed that 18 symptomatic and 16 asymptomatic cases were imported from abroad.

This takes the total in the country since the beginning of the pandemic to 88,701 cases and 4,635 fatalities.

China has been battling an uptick in transmissions since the beginning of the year with lockdowns affecting over 20 million people in large cities of the country's northeast.

Hebei province, which surrounds the capital city of Beijing, saw its main city Shijiazhuang shut down all transportation routes with the capital.

Health authorities have been undertaking mass testing drives in major urban centers of affected areas since the uptick was first registered. (/Sputnik)

( With inputs from ANI )