The Shanghai Municipal Health Commission holds a media briefing on Thursday morning on the new wave of COVID-19 infections in Shanghai . [Photo by Zhou Wenting/chinadaily.com.cn]

In light of the three new COVID-19 cases that were reported on Feb 3, experts reiterated their belief that this new wave of infections which started on Jan 21 is still controllable, citing the fact that all cases have been within the transmission routes determined by the authorities.

A total of 21 cases have been reported in the municipality since Jan 21.

The Shanghai Municipal Health Commission said that the three new infections had close contact or suspicious contact history with the previous confirmed patients. Two of them were placed under hotel quarantine on Jan 21 and the other was placed under centralized quarantine on Jan 22. The trio later developed symptoms while in quarantine.

Wu Fan, a member of the Shanghai COVID-19 epidemic prevention and control team, said that all the cases happened among people who had been placed under quarantine and were discovered through proactive screening and testing.

"They have obvious epidemiological relationships with the previous cases and are not new individual cases from nowhere. This shows that the risk of the current wave of epidemic is still controllable," said Wu Fan, who is also the vice-dean of Fudan University Shanghai Medical College.

The health commission said that for residents from the Zhaotong Road residential neighborhood who have been quarantined at hotels since Jan 21, those who are related to the new cases will continue their centralized quarantine, while the others will be able to return home on Thursday if they test negative for the novel coronavirus and do not display symptoms.

The Zhaotong Road residential neighborhood will be removed from the list of medium-risk regions as of 6 pm Thursday, said Wu Jinglei, director of the Shanghai Municipal Health Commission.

The Shanghai Cancer Center Affiliated with Fudan University and the Renji Hospital's west campus will resume outpatient clinic service starting Tuesday and Monday respectively, the medical institutions announced on Thursday.

The two medical facilities had suspended outpatient services after their workers tested positive for the virus on the week of of the new outbreak.