Shijiazhuang in North China's Hebei province identified two new locally transmitted COVID-19 cases on Saturday by midday, both of whom are from rural areas in the city's Pingshan county, according to information released at a news conference on Saturday afternoon.

The two cases were detected during the city's third round of nucleic acid testing, and are both from villages in Pingshan, said a report by China Central Television.

No further information about the two new patients was released as of Saturday afternoon.

The city has reported a total of 827 local COVID-19 patients and now has 109 asymptomatic carriers under medical observation, city Vice-Mayor Meng Xianghong said at the conference.

Most of the cases are from villages in Gaocheng district, and rural areas are the worst hit sites during this round of the epidemic in the region since the beginning of the year.

The single-day's increase of COVID-19 cases in Shijiazhuang occurred as the city had seen cases decrease in the past few days, showing the epidemic has been effectively contained, Meng said.