BEIJING — More than 95 percent of COVID-19 patients in the latest outbreak have been mild or asymptomatic cases, a Chinese health official told a press conference on March 19.

Less than 0.1 percent were in a severe or critical condition, Jiao Yahui from the National Health Commission (NHC) said, noting that some provinces are seeing a rapidly rising number of infections, as the prevalent Omicron variant flares up in multiple locations across the country.

From March 1 to 18, more than 29,000 local infections were reported in 28 provincial-level regions across the Chinese mainland, NHC data showed.