China Records Highest Daily COVID-19 Cases Since Start of Pandemic: Health Authority

BEIJING (Sputnik) - China's number of new daily infections rose to a record high of 32,943 since the beginning of the pandemic in 2019, the Chinese National Health Commission said on Friday.

The country saw a record 31,656 new cases on Thursday and, prior to that, in mid-April when the daily increase in new infections exceeded 29,400.

The vast majority of those infected are asymptomatic carriers, namely 29,840 people, while another 3,103 have infection symptoms.

The largest clusters of cases were detected in the southern province of Guangdong and northern Hebei, as well as in the municipalities of Beijing and Chongqing.

Chinese workers are reportedly building a quarantine center with capacity for 80,000 beds in the city of Guangzhou, Guangdong province. Currently, it is the city's largest quarantine facility under construction.

As of November 23, some 1,120 beds for medical personnel, two blocks with 96 office spaces, as well as 1,300 rooms for patient isolation, were ready for operation.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, some 300,619 COVID-19 cases have been recorded in mainland China, and 5,232 people have died from the virus.

On Thursday, a number of major Chinese cities tightened coronavirus-related restrictions amid a new hike in the incidence of the disease.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, China has adhered to a zero-tolerance COVID-19 policy which requires strict control measures and the enforcement of lockdowns in districts and cities with even a relatively low incidence of the disease.

The epidemiological situation in China has been worsening in recent months due to numerous local outbreaks of COVID-19, prompting a number of cities to go into lockdowns and force people to undergo PCR testing daily.