6.55am – Mar 31, 2020

China's government indicated it will start releasing data on how many people are infected with coronavirus but don't have symptoms, seemingly responding to a growing chorus of domestic and international criticism of China's data on the outbreak.

Local governments should emphasise their ongoing efforts to monitor, track, isolate and treat cases of so-called "asymptomatic infection," a meeting on COVID-19 led by Premier Li Keqiang said Monday.

Doing so will reduce loopholes in epidemic control work, according to the statement which was released on the website of the State Council, the top administrative body in China.

"Once asymptomatic cases are discovered, it's required to immediately implement strictly centralised isolation and medical management, release information openly and transparently, resolutely prevent late reporting and omissions, identify the source as soon as possible, and quarantine close contacts for medical observation," according to the statement.

Chinese authorities are expected to start releasing data on asymptomatic infection in "the near future," domestic media Yicai reported in a story Monday.

Zhejiang, in the country's southeast and which has the fourth highest number of confirmed infections of any province, earlier said that all asymptomatic cases would be subject to the same control measure as confirmed cases, according to a Xinhua report.

The exclusion from official data of people infected but without symptoms has come up repeatedly since the coronavirus emerged in Wuhan. Authorities there and elsewhere are still finding such cases, even as the growth in confirmed new cases has slowed rapidly.