In Huge Outbreak, China Reports 13,000 New COVID-19 Cases – Highest Since 2020

The Omicron variant has spread to over a dozen provinces, with Shanghai emerging as the hotspot.

China on Sunday, 4 April, reported over 13,000 COVID-19 cases – the most since the peak of the first pandemic wave over two years ago.

(Photo: AP/PTI)

China reported over 13,000 COVID-19 cases on Sunday, 4 April – the most since the peak of the first pandemic wave over two years ago. The country recorded 13,146 cases on Sunday while "no new deaths" were reported, the National Health Commission said in a statement.

The highly transmissible Omicron variant has spread to more than a dozen provinces, with Shanghai emerging as the hotspot. The city reported 8,581 asymptomatic COVID-19 cases and 425 symptomatic coronavirus cases on Sunday.

In a city-wide surveillance campaign, the country's administration has sent the military and thousands of healthcare workers into Shanghai to help execute COVID-19 tests for all of its 26 million residents on Monday.

Citing Chinese People’s Liberation Army Daily, Global Times reported that the country dispatched more than 2,000 medical staff to Shanghai in one of its biggest-ever public health responses.

Various provinces such Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Beijing have sent healthcare workers to Shanghai, according to media reports.

Meanwhile, the UK Health Security Agency has stated that the UK is currently witnessing three recombinant variants of COVID-19, dubbed XE, XF, and XD, apart from the existing cases of Omicron and Delta.

According to the report, the recombinant variants XD and XF are a combination of the previous strains of Delta and BA.1.