BEIJING - China will persevere with its "dynamic-clearing" approach to COVID-19 cases as soon as they emerge, health officials said on Saturday, adding that measures must be implemented more precisely and meet the needs of vulnerable people.

The country's strict COVID containment approach is still able to control the virus, despite the high transmissibility of COVID variants and asymptomatic carriers, an official from the China National Health Commission told a news conference.

China's zero-COVID policy includes lockdowns, quarantining and rigorous testing, aimed at stopping the spread of COVID.

"We should adhere to the principle of putting people and lives first, and the broader strategy of preventing imports from outside and internal rebounds," said health commission spokesperson Mi Feng.

The briefing followed a week in which markets surged on hope China would relax restrictions, buoyed further on Friday when a former disease control official told a banking conference that China would make "substantial" changes to COVID policy in the coming months.

China reported 3,837 new COVID-19 infections for Friday, of which 657 were symptomatic and 3,180 were asymptomatic, a slight decrease from the six-month-high of 4,045 new COVID-19 infections reported a day earlier.

(Reporting by Ryan Woo in Beijing and David Kirton in Shenzhen; Editing by Michael Perry and William Mallard)