Wuhan continues communities management against outbreak rebound

Authorities in the Chinese city of Wuhan, where the coronavirus pandemic originated last December, on Friday asked its residents to stay at home and avoid nonessential outings in an attempt to prevent a rebound of the outbreak.

The government of Wuhan, capital of Hubei province, said in a notice that the city's residential communities will continue closed-off management, and residents passing through communities' entries must have their temperatures checked and wear a mask, reports Xinhua news agency.

The notice warned against slackening vigilance amid the increased flow of people and influx of non-locals.

Wuhan, which has been virtually sealed off since January 23 to contain the epidemic, is expected to lift outbound travel restrictions on April 8.

The city's public transportation has partly resumed service, and there were visibly more pedestrians and vehicles on the roads.

Preventing a rebound in the outbreak, however, remained "an arduous task", the notice said, citing the emergence of asymptomatic patients, patients who test positive again after being discharged from hospitals and new cases in people arriving from abroad.

It demands enhanced efforts to track down and timely quarantine and treat COVID-19 cases and their close contacts.

Hubei province reported only one new confirmed case of COVID-19 in the past week, but on Thursday, 51 new asymptomatic patients were registered, up from 37 on Wednesday.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases globally has crossed the 1 million mark, according to the new tally from Johns Hopkins University.

A total of 1,015,403 people have been diagnosed with the novel coronavirus across the world, with a death toll of 53,030, while 210,579 others have recovered, Xinhua news agency cited the the tally updated by the university's Center for Systems Science and Engineering.

China now accounts for 82,456 confirmed cases, with 3,326 deaths, while the US has the highest number of cases, at 245,213, along with 5,983 fatalities.

Italy, with an overall 115,242 cases, accounts for the highest number of deaths at 13,915.