Guangdong province, which is witnessing a sporadic outbreak of COVID-19, reported five new local asymptomatic carriers on Thursday, according to a statement released by Guangdong Provincial Health Commission on Friday.

Of them, three were reported in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong, while the rest two were detected in Shenzhen and Foshan, respectively, the statement said.

With the new asymptomatic carriers detected on Thursday, Guangzhou has so far reported four local transmitted confirmed cases and eight asymptomatic carriers since the first confirmed case, a 75 year-old woman surnamed Guo, was reported on May 21.

Meanwhile, Guangdong province reported an imported confirmed case, plus another five imported asymptomatic carriers, on Thursday, said the statement.

The confirmed case from Egypt was reported in Zhanjiang, a coastal city in western Guangdong's Leizhou Peninsula, according to the statement.

Guangzhou reported three imported asymptomatic cases from the United States, Egypt and Myanmar, while Shenzhen special economic zone reported two asymptomatic cases from the United States and Cameroon.

By the end of Thursday, the country's most populous Guangdong province, which has a population of more than 120 million, has reported a total of 2,428 confirmed cases, including 1,028 imported cases. And 45 patients were still in isolated wards for treatment by Thursday.