A woman walks her dog in a small square in Wuhan City, capital of central China's Hubei Province, December 12, 2022. /CFP
China will no longer report the number of asymptomatic COVID-19 cases, starting from Wednesday, as announced by China's National Health Commission.
Li Qun, director of the Emergency Center of Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, explained on Wednesday that many symptom-free COVID-infected people are not taking nucleic acid tests anymore, which makes it difficult to provide a precise figure.
A community worker cleans Hankou Hualou Street in Wuhan City, capital of central China's Hubei Province, December 11, 2022. /CFP
Why COVID-19 cases dropped?
Li further explained why there has been a downward trend in daily reported new COVID-19 cases in China.
"After the further optimization of anti-COVID measures, city-wide nucleic acid testing is no longer conducted. People can take a test at their will, leading to a general decline in testing numbers and of cases screened out from the test," said Li.
Moreover, the number of cases reported by hospitals had also dropped due to many cases with no or mild symptoms, especially those who were identified as positive through rapid antigen self-testing, are choosing to stay at home rather than report to a hospital.
For future monitoring and reporting of the COVID-19 spread, Li said that it is still crucial to monitor cases reported in hospitals, and possible cluster infections in nursing homes, mental health facilities, welfare agencies as well as schools.