The Chinese mainland on Monday reported five new locally transmitted COVID-19 cases, the National Health Commission said in its daily report on Tuesday.
Of the five local cases, four were reported in Liaoning and one in Yunnan, the commission said.
Monday also saw reports of 14 imported cases in six provincial-level regions, it said.
No new suspected cases or new deaths related to COVID-19 were reported on Monday, said the commission.
A Chinese antiviral medicine for COVID-19, called JS016, has commenced phase-3 clinical trials overseas, its developer said Monday.
The patented anti-COVID-19 drug candidate was jointly developed by the Institute of Microbiology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Shanghai Junshi Biosciences Co Ltd.
According to the institute, JS016 has become the first COVID-19 monoclonal antibody in the world to carry out clinical trials in healthy people.
Researchers completed global multi-center phase-2 trials this month. The results of the early-stage trials support the safety and effectiveness of JS016, suggesting it can lower the viral titer in participants and reduce the risk of becoming a severe case.
