China completed a five-day construction project for a 1,500-room hospital on Saturday as clusters of COVID-19 spread in Beijing and surrounding provinces.
The state of affairs: The facility is one of six hospitals with a total of 6,500 rooms at the Nangong plant, the Xinhua News Agency said in an AP reporting Saturday. They are all expected to be completed next week.
In numbers: China hit a 10-month high for COVID cases, reporting 168 cases on Friday.
- Yes but: The numbers remain well below the infection levels the nation saw last February, when China hit a record high of about 15,000 daily cases.
- According to data from the University of Johns Hopkins, the country reported more than 97,000 cases and more than 4,700 deaths on Saturday.
- It remains possible that China – the site of the original coronavirus outbreak – has underreported its cases.
What they say: The Chinese government blames the increase in food imports and travelers visiting the country.
- The new cases “are all imported from abroad. It was caused by personnel entering or contaminated imported goods in the cold chain,” the National Health Commission said in a statement per AP.
The big picture: The WHO last May agreed to a call from more than 110 countries to lead an independent review of the global coronavirus response after China backed the move following clashes with Australia, which had previously called for a thorough investigation.
Go deeper … Timeline: The early days of the coronavirus outbreak and cover-up in China