China will lower its Covid-19 emergency response from the highest level to the second-highest in Hubei province and its capital Wuhan, the epicentre of the deadly virus outbreak, on Saturday, as most tourist sites in the country were opened for May Day holidays.
The lowering of the emergency level shows a major breakthrough in Hubei’s prevention and control against Covid-19, but it does not mean that Hubei has downgraded its risk alert or decreased work intensity against the epidemic, Vice-Governor of Hubei Yang Yunyan told the media on Friday.
After more than three months of precise and tight prevention and control, the virus spread is “basically cut off” in Hubei, Yang said.
Hubei province was locked down for three months since January 23. Now, the lockdown has been lifted and people are allowed to travel after health checks.
“The unprecedented emergency measures during the initial phase have basically cut off the spread of the novel coronavirus,” Yang said. “In line with national regulations and the provincial contingency plan, Hubei has basically met the condition to lower the emergency response level,” state-run Xinhua news agency quoted the governor as saying.
The emergency level was downgraded as the province did not report new Covid-19 cases in the last 27 days. However, Hubei province has reported 631 asymptomatic coronavirus in the period.
China’s National Health Commission (NHC) on Friday said 25 new asymptomatic cases were reported in the country, taking the total tally to 981, including 115 from abroad, who were still under medical observation.