Stranded tourists get on a bus to leave Ejina Banner of Alxa League, North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region, Oct 29, 2021. A total of 5,095 stranded tourists began to leave Ejina Banner on Friday. The tourists, in 113 chartered bus tour groups, will take vehicles to Baotou, Erdos and other places for quarantine. (Photo: Xinhua)

HOHHOT - North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region reported 13 new locally transmitted confirmed COVID-19 cases from midnight Friday to 3 pm Friday, according to a press briefing on the region's COVID-19 control and prevention.

All the new cases were registered in the Ejina Banner, a county in western Inner Mongolia.

Inner Mongolia has confirmed a total of 149 COVID-19 cases as of 3 pm Friday in the latest wave of infections, including 127 cases in Ejina. Among them, 14 were in severe condition. All patients have been receiving treatment at designated hospitals.

An epidemiological investigation is still underway to comb close contacts and secondary close contacts in the region.