In contrast to other parts of the world where cases are soaring, China has for several months managed to contain the epidemic with strict controls, the widespread wearing of masks, containment measures and contact-tracing applications.
Nationally, only a few new patients have been recorded each day, almost all of them Chinese who have returned from abroad and are placed in quarantine upon arrival.
But the discovery on Sunday of six positive cases of coronavirus and six asymptomatic cases in the coastal city of Qingdao fuelled fears of a resurgence of the virus.
The number of lives lost to the new coronavirus across the globe has now approached one 1.1 million, nine months after the first COVID-19 case was officially recorded.
According to the latest figures on Tuesday, 38,053,690 people have so far been infected with the novel coronavirus globally, with the deaths reaching 1,085,555 and recoveries amounting to 28,610,295.
The United States, Brazil, India and Mexico account for more than half of the total fatalities.
More than seventy countries are currently seeing accelerating case rates, compared to just over 50 where daily cases are falling.
MR/PR
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