China daily local COVID infections exceed 1,000 as symptomless cases spike

Mainland China reported over 1,000 new local COVID-19 infections on Friday, the highest daily count since Beijing contained its first national outbreak in early 2020, driven by a jump in asymptomatic infections amid the spread of the Omicron variant.

The size of the latest outbreak is muchsmaller than many others outside mainland China, but the increase in the numberof cases could add pressure to China's "dynamic-clearance" ambitionto curb each transmission as quickly as possible.

China detected 703 domestically transmittedasymptomatic infections for Thursday, according to data from the healthauthority on Friday, up from 435 a day earlier.

That marks a sharp increase from a dailyaverage of about 10 such cases in the first two months this year, calculationsshowed.

Another 397 local symptomatic cases, whichChina classifies separately from symptomless infections, were reported for March.10, the National Health Commission said.

"Infections in vaccinated individuals aremore likely to be asymptomatic than infections in unvaccinated individuals, andvaccine coverage is now very high in China," said Ben Cowling, anepidemiology professor at the University of Hong Kong.

Around 87% of China's 1.4 billion populationhave received complete doses for primary vaccination as of late February, andaround 40% of the population has received a booster shot.

The city of Qingdao reported over 300 localinfections, more than any other among the dozens of cities that reported localcases for Thursday.

There were no new deaths, leaving the deathtoll unchanged at 4,636.

As of March 10, mainland China had reported112,940 cases with confirmed symptoms, including both local ones and thosearriving from abroad.