China has reported declining numbers of new locally-transmitted Covid-19 cases for the third consecutive day, extending tentative signs that the latest month-long outbreak may be waning, Reuters reports.

The National Health Commission reported 47 new local cases on August 12, the lowest since July 30 in an outbreak that began in the city of Nanjing in eastern Jiangsu province on July 20.

Officials have said the outbreak, mainly fuelled by the highly transmissible Delta variant, most likely started with the exposure of an airport cleaning crew to a passenger jet that arrived from Russia.

The counter-epidemic measures appeared to have helped confine infections to a handful of provinces including Jiangsu. Nanjing has reported just one to two new cases a day in the past week.