Coronavirus | China reports fifth day of local coronavirus infections

BEIJING, Sept 15 Reuters: China's new province of Fujian, the focus of the country's latest COVID - 19 outbreak, reported its fifth consecutive day of new local infections though cases remained contained in three cities on the coast.

The National Health Commission reported on Wednesday that 50 new local cases were reported for Sept. 14, compared to 59 infections reported a day earlier. All of them were in Fujian.

That brings the total number of local infections in the three Fujian cities of Quanzhou, where the outbreak began, Xiamen and Putian to 152.

The infections come ahead of a week-long National Day holiday beginning on 1, Oct. 1, the major tourist season, as well as a short Mid-Autumn Festival New Week.

The last domestic outbreak from July to August disrupted travel, hitting tourism, hospitality and transportation sectors.

In an editorial on Wednesday, state tabloid Global Times said such a local country like China can be frightened by a very large outbreak in Fujian Local officials should not casually advocate blanket orders to stay put during the holidays or turn such advocacy into a requirement, Global Times said.

We need to gradually increase the dynamic efficiency of our precise zero-case route, the newspaper said.

We should avoid a complete stop on a large scale. It must be possible for a health professional to detect each epidemic early on. So much so that we need to make sure that we can contain it faster so that it will cause less harm to society. If imported cases were reported for Sept 14, China had confirmed 73 new coronavirus cases compared to 92 confirmed just a day earlier, according to the National Health Commission.

China reported 16 confirmed coronavirus cases that it does not classify as new infections, compared with 20 a day earlier.

As of Sept 14 China had recorded 95,413 confirmed cases, with the cumulative death toll unchanged at 4,636.