Shafaq News / China's National Health Commission reported 16 new confirmed coronavirus cases on April 18, the lowest number since March 17 and down from 27 a day earlier, according to data published on Sunday.

Of the new cases, 9 were imported infections, the lowest since March 13 and down from 17 a day earlier. The remaining 7 confirmed cases were locally transmitted, down from 10 the previous day.

Newly discovered asymptomatic cases were at 44, down from 54 a day earlier. Three of the new cases were imported, according to the health commission.

No new deaths were reported, it said.

The total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the country reached 82,735 as of April 18, while the total death toll from the virus stood at 4,632, it said.

In Wuhan, the stronghold of the emerging coronavirus, "Covid-19", the Chinese health authorities reduced, on Saturday, their classification of the level of epidemic risk in the city to "low", and said that there were no remaining towns or regions in Hubei Province (center of Wuhan) High or medium.

According to the standards adopted in China, the term "low risk zone" is applied to areas where no new cases of corona have been recorded within a period of at least 14 days.

In a related context, Chinese health authorities recently announced that the government agreed to conduct clinical trials on two inactive vaccines to combat the emerging coronavirus.

In March, China obtained approval to conduct another clinical trial of the vaccine against Corona virus, which was developed by the Chinese Academy of Military Medical Sciences and Kancino Biotechnology Company, listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, after the US drug development company Moderna said it had begun testing Humans are to be vaccinated with the US National Institutes of Health.

For his part, the director of the Chinese laboratory, which was referred to by the American media, denied that it might be the source of Corona virus or any responsibility for spreading the epidemic.

"It is impossible for this virus to be from us," said Yuan Ziming, director of the Institute of Virology in Wuhan, the epicenter of the global epidemic in central China told "CGTN" network on Saturday.

He added "We know exactly what kind of research is conducted at the institute and how viruses and samples are dealt with."

He criticized the media, which "intentionally tries to trick people" with accusations "based on mere speculation" without "evidence".

Most scientists believe that the new corona virus is most likely to be transmitted to humans from an animal. In this regard, the charge was referred to a market in the city selling live wild animals for the purpose of consuming them.

But the presence of the Institute of Virology at a few kilometers from the market raises a few months ago speculation about the leakage of the virus from these sensitive installations.

The institute's laboratory is heavily protected and contains the most dangerous strains of known viruses such as Ebola. It is a B-4 level 4 biological safety laboratory.

Earlier, the Washington Post reported that the United States embassy in Beijing, after several visits to the institute, alerted the US authorities in 2018 to apparently insufficient safety measures in a laboratory conducting studies of bat corona viruses.