coronavirus cases in the previous day, the national health authority said on Sunday, down from 2,129 a day earlier. But the number of new asymptomatic cases, which China does not classify as confirmed cases, surged to 11,781 on Saturday compared with 7,869 a day earlier.
Of the new confirmed cases, 1,455 were locally transmitted, with 956 detected from Jilin and 438 from Shanghai. Shanghai, home of 25 million people, will carry out a city-wide antigen testing on Sunday and mass nucleic acid testing on Monday, a senior official from the Shanghai health authority said at a press conference on Sunday. "The main task is to completely eliminate risk points and to cut off the chain of transmission so that we can curb the spread of the epidemic as soon as possible," said Wu Qianyu, inspector from Shanghai Municipal Health Commission.
Chinese Vice-Premier Sun Chunlan on Saturday also urged Shanghai city to "make resolute and swift moves" to curb the pandemic.
The city has been striving to stop the outbreak by imposing a two-stage lockdown, prompting manufacturers to halt operations and causing severe congestion at Shanghai port, the world's biggest container transporting hub.