China reports 30 new coronavirus cases on June 5, up from previous day

China reported 30 new coronavirus cases on the mainland for June 5, up from 24 cases a day earlier, the country's health authority said in a statement on Sunday.

Of the new patients, 23 were imported, the National Health Commission said, and the seven local cases were all in southern Guangdong province. There were no new deaths.

China also reported 18 new asymptomatic infections, compared with 28 a day earlier. China does not classify symptomless infections as confirmed cases.

As of June 5, China had a total of 91,248 confirmed COVID-19 cases. Its death toll stood unchanged at 4,636.

Meanwhile, top US infectious disease expert Dr Anthony Fauci has called on China to release the medical records of nine people whose ailments might provide vital clues into whether COVID-19 first emerged as the result of a lab leak, the Financial Times reported on Thursday.

"I would like to see the medical records of the three people, who are reported to have got sick in 2019. Did they really get sick, and if so, what did they get sick with?" the report quoted Fauci as saying.

The origin of the virus is hotly contested, with US intelligence agencies still examining reports that researchers at a Chinese virology laboratory in Wuhan were seriously ill in 2019 a month before the first COVID-19 cases were reported.

However, Chinese scientists and officials have consistently rejected the lab leak hypothesis, saying the virus could have been circulating in other regions before it hit Wuhan and might have even entered China through imported frozen food shipments or wildlife trading.

Financial Times reported that Fauci continues to believe the virus was first transmitted to humans through animals, pointing out that even if the lab researchers did have COVID-19, they could have contracted the disease from the wider population.

(With inputs from agencies)