Chinese mainland reports 3,927 new local confirmed COVID-19 cases

BEIJING, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese mainland on Wednesday reported 3,927 locally transmitted confirmed COVID-19 cases, the National Health Commission (NHC) said Thursday.

Altogether 27,517 local asymptomatic carriers were newly identified.

A total of 1,826 COVID-19 patients were discharged from hospitals after recovery on the mainland on Wednesday, said the commission in its daily report.

Wednesday saw one new death from COVID-19, with the total death toll at 5,232.

China released 20 measures to further optimize its epidemic prevention and control work on Nov. 11, which include shortening the quarantine period for close contacts, deleting the category of areas with "medium" infection risk, and placing different types of patients in various medical facilities.

To facilitate the implementation, it then released four documents on Monday, specifying the policies concerning nucleic acid testing, the categorization of risk areas, home quarantine, and health monitoring at home.

More efforts were made to eliminate excessive measures in epidemic containment, with a focus on school and factory closures, traffic control without advance approval, and arbitrary static or closed-off management, said health officials.

Emergency wards, intensive care units, and dialysis, childbirth, and surgery services in hospitals should not close unless absolutely necessary, according to the NHC.

It is imperative to unswervingly put people and their lives above everything else, resolutely follow the general strategy of "preventing imported cases and domestic resurgences," and tenaciously pursue the general policy of "dynamic zero-COVID," said NHC spokesperson Mi Feng.