93 cases in 24 hours: How Covid-19 is rearing its head again in China

The spread of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) continues unabated in China, from where the disease is believed to have emerged.

The highly-infectious delta variant is hurtling across the country in the latest round of spikes despite the increasingly aggressive measures that local officials have enacted in a bid to thwart it.

On Wednesday, China recorded 93 fresh cases of Covid-19, setting another daily record.

Local infections have been found in 19 of 31 provinces.

Eleven asymptomatic infections were also reported, according to National Health Commission, which are not added to the official tally.

This is up from 54 a day earlier and the highest daily count since 9 August at the peak of China's last major outbreak.

Beijing reported nine new local infections, the most since 19 January.

Three more provinces detected cases - central Chongqing, Henan and Jiangsu on the eastern coast.

The fresh outbreak has so far been concentrated mostly in northern China.

With the latest daily caseload, China has recorded 631 cases of Covid-19 between 17 October and 2 November.

Meanwhile, officials in China said they are committed to maintaining the zero-tolerance Covid policy despite the flare-ups that are coming faster, spreading further and evading many of the measures that previously controlled it.

Temperature screening has been set up at entrances of shopping malls, supermarkets, hotels, cinemas and subway stations in Beijing, while a legion of personnel on the ground checks the health codes of visiting individuals on their mobile phones.

More than 33,000 visitors inside Shanghai's Disneyland were allowed to leave on Sunday only after their Covid test results came negative as one confirmed patient had visited the resort on Saturday.

As of yesterday (2 November), mainland China had 97,423 confirmed cases.