By Friday, the flare-up of COVID-19 cases in China had spread to 14 provinces. A health official said that new locally transmitted cases or asymptomatic carriers were reported in these provinces in the last 14 days.

The epidemic prevention and control situation is grim and complicated as infections are still spreading rapidly, said Mi Feng, spokesperson for the National Health Commission (NHC). However, China's top epidemiologist Zhong Nanshan said on Saturday that the country will be able to contain the latest surge of COVID-19 cases within a month. According to NHC's daily report, the Chinese mainland reported 59 new locally transmitted COVID-19 cases and 19 new imported cases.