Qingdao Photo: CFP

The domestically transmitted COVID-19 infections tally in Chinese mainland on Sunday soared to more than 500 with 214 confirmed cases and 312 asymptomatic cases respectively, the highest since 2022. 

The 214 confirmed cases are scattered in 13 provinces across the country, most of whom are from south China's Guangdong Province (69), northeast China's Jilin Province (54), east China's Shandong Province (46) and north China's Hebei Province (9), according to data accumulated by the National Health Commission on Monday. 

Among the 312 asymptomatic cases, most are from Shandong's Qingdao (117) and Guangdong (104), Shanghai (45) in East China and Yunnan (18) in Southwest China, the NHC said.

Guangdong Province registered the most COVID-19 infections. Experts said local outbreaks were mainly affected by the epidemic in neighboring Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. 

Shandong's Qingdao, which reported the second highest COVID-19 infections on Sunday, has two transmission chains - Huangdao and Laixi. The outbreak in Huangdao was traced back to goods contaminated with Omicron. However, the source of Laixi outbreak, which has affected mostly students, has not been traced yet.

Global Times