A resident takes the nuceic acid testing in Changchun, Northeast China's Jilin Province on March 13, 2022 as the city has started a new round of citywide testing. Photo: VCG

The COVID-19 epidemic situation in China is grim and complex, making it more difficult to prevent and control, but the overall epidemic situation in China is still controllable, the National Health Commission said on Tuesday.

Chinese mainland has reported more than 15,000 domestically-transmitted positive cases from March 1 to 14, affecting 28 provinces and regions, Lei Zhenglong, deputy head of the National Health Commission (NHC)'s Bureau of Disease Prevention and Control, said at Tuesday's press conference. 

Lei said that the current epidemic situation is grim and complex, making it difficult to prevent and control. But the COVID-19 affected regions are dealing with the epidemic in an orderly way, thus the overall epidemic situation in China is still controllable, Lei said.

Mi Feng, spokesperson of the NHC, said at the press conference that the main variant spread in many parts of China is the stealth Omicron, which spreads faster than other variants. The fact has proven that the current dynamic zero-COVID policy is effective in dealing with the Omicron variant.

Chinese mainland reported 3,507 newly confirmed domestically-transmitted cases on Tuesday, with 3,076 reported by Northeast China's Jilin Province, and reported another 1,647 silent cases. The total number of 5,154 positive cases has hit new records in China's daily cases. 

In COVID-19 worst-hit Jilin Province, 8,201 patients were hospitalized, with more than 95 percent with mild cases or silent carriers, the NHC said.