China reports 1,300 asymptomatic virus cases

China announced on Tuesday it will include asymptomatic coronavirus cases in their official count for the first time starting Wednesday. On Wednesday the country said it has 1,367 asymptomatic coronavirus cases.
The move follows widespread concern over people who have tested positive but are not showing symptoms, after authorities revealed over the weekend that an infected woman in Henan province had been in close contact with three asymptomatic cases.
The National Health Commission announced Tuesday that it would respond “to public concerns” by starting to publish daily data on asymptomatic cases, which it admitted were infectious.
The NHC said the asymptomatic patients were under medical observation, with 130 new cases newly added in the last day. Asymptomatic patients and their close contacts will be isolated for 14 days immediately upon discovery.
China is sending millions of masks and medical supplies to countries across the world, as it slowly began lifting restrictions, saying its only coronavirus cases now are foreigners entering the country. Health officials also reported the first imported case from abroad in Wuhan, the epicentre where the virus first emerged in December. Officials said that, of 36 new cases reported Wednesday, 35 were imported from abroad.
Top UK officials said on Sunday that apart from downplaying its number of cases by “15 to 40 times”, China is also trying to expand its economic power through offering help to other countries which are currently trying to combat the virus.
Last week, Spain returned the first order after it bought 640,000 faulty rapid testing kits from a Chinese company. The tests showed that the kits performed with an accuracy level of under 30%. Spain currently has 85,195 confirmed cases and 7,340 deaths from the virus.
The Netherlands has also returned around 600,000 masks out of a shipment of 1.3 million from China, after an inspection showed they failed to protect the face or had defective filters.