Taipei, June 4 (CNA) The total number of confirmed COVID-19 coronavirus cases in Taiwan remained at 443 Thursday, as there were no new infections, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said at its daily press briefing.

Thursday also marked the 53rd consecutive day of no locally transmitted infections, as the last such case was on April 12, said Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung, who heads the CECC.

At the briefing, Chen also advised that people in Kaohsiung wear a mask and sanitize their hands when they go to polls Saturday to vote in the election for the recall of the city's Mayor Han Kuo-yu.

To date, 352 of Taiwan's 443 cases of COVID-19 have been classified as imported, while 55 are believed to be local infections, according to CECC statistics.

The other 36 cases were aboard a Navy vessel that was on a goodwill mission in the Pacific in March, a cluster infection that the CECC says originated in Taiwan.

Taiwan's last recorded imported case was on Monday, when a woman who recently returned from the United States was confirmed to have the disease.

As of Thursday, 428 COVID-19 patients in Taiwan had recovered, eight were in hospital, and the number of fatalities remained at seven, according to the CECC.

Globally, COVID-19 has infected more than 6.4 million people in 187 countries and regions, including more than 1.88 million in the U.S., the CECC said.

A total of 556,032 people have been infected in Brazil, 432,277 in Russia and 279,856 in the United Kingdom, with global deaths at 383,815, CECC data on Thursday showed.