Mi Feng, an NHC spokesperson and Deputy Director-General for Communications, said that for the first time, no new local cases were reported by the 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps on 18 March. The daily number of new local cases has remained as zero for seven consecutive days in places other than Hubei, and for 14 days in Hubei except for Wuhan. Nationwide, 84.55% of the new confirmed cases reported over the past seven days are imported cases, pointing to a heightened risk of imported cases due to the rapid spread of the virus around the world.

At a weekly mission briefing on 19 March, WHO Director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that more than 200,000 cases of COVID-19 have been reported to WHO and more than 8,000 people have lost their lives. But he noted that China has, for the first time, reported no domestic cases, calling it "an amazing achievement."