GUANGDONG Province adjusted the emergency response level of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak from Level I to Level II, effective 9 a.m. yesterday as the number of new infections in the province has continued decreasing over the past few weeks, according to the official website of the Health Commission of Guangdong Province. As of yesterday, including Guangdong, a total of six provinces had adjusted their emergency response level to the novel coronavirus to second or the third from first, according to notices on their websites. The health commission of Shanxi Province switched to a second-level response, and Gansu, Liaoning, Guizhou and Yunnan provinces to third level. According to the Health Commission of Guangdong Province, the decision was made by the provincial anti-COVID-19 commanding office as there have been no major outbreaks of new infections in the province for the past week. However, it urged all cities to roll out specific prevention and control measures catered to their own situation to pave the way for full work and production resumption and to minimize the disruption of economic development. The adjusting of the emergency response level happened one month after Jan. 23, when Guangdong Province launched a “Level I Response to Major Public Health Emergencies” (the highest emergency response level in the country), the number of COVID-19 infections hiked in Hubei Province (the epicenter of the virus outbreak) and the virus spread nationwide during the Chinese New Year travel peak. Since the outbreak, all 31 provincial-level regions in the country have launched a Level-I emergency response against the virus. Guangdong has been one of the provinces to report the most COVID-19 infections outside of Hubei Province. Shenzhen reported the most confirmed cases (417) in Guangdong followed by Guangzhou (345), Zhuhai (98) and Dongguan (96) as of Sunday, according to figures from Shenzhen’s health authority. (Wei Jie) |