COVID-19 surges in Australia, no local cases in China

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ANKARA (AA) - Australia witnessed a surge in new cases of the novel coronavirus on Wednesday with 199 infections reported, according to the Department of Health.

Authorities have imposed a severe lockdown to stem the spread of the virus, with one person arrested in the country's largest Victoria province while trying to violate restrictions by crossing the provincial border into New South Wales, the daily Sydney Morning Herald reported.

Health professionals in Victoria, which reported 191 of total daily cases in the country, conducted more than one million COVID-19 tests.

Almost 30,000 tests were carried out on Tuesday.

- China reports no local cases

China's National Health Commission (NHC) said on Wednesday that no local infections had been reported in the country.

In a statement, the NHC said seven new cases had been found but "all were imported cases."

The country has confirmed 1,949 cases of imported infections of whom 1,877 had recovered.

China has reported a total of 83,572 COVID-19 cases since its outbreak in Wuhan, the capital of its central Hubei province, last December.

The NHC said 4,634 people have died due to the infection.

Since first appearing in Wuhan last December, the coronavirus has spread to at least 188 countries and regions. The US, Brazil, Russia and India are currently the countries hardest hit in the world.

The pandemic has killed more than 544,000 people worldwide, with infections surpassing 11.8 million and recoveries over 6.4 million, according to figures compiled by the US' Johns Hopkins University.