ALL parts of Northeast China’s Jilin Province hit by the recent COVID-19 outbreak — including Changchun, the capital — have cut off all COVID transmission chains out of their quarantine areas, officials said at a news conference Thursday.

This means that the province has put the virus under control after 45 days of hard work, said Zhang Baozong, deputy director of the provincial publicity department.

The local COVID-19 epidemic spread rapidly in Jilin since the first cases were reported in Hunchun, a border city in the Yanbian Korean autonomous prefecture, he said.

Infections were reported in the cities of Jilin and Changchun in the following days. As of March 11, the epidemic had spread to six city-level regions and a county under administration of the province. Community transmission also broke out simultaneously in Changchun and Jilin.

The city of Jilin achieved zero-COVID status at the community level April 8 after 37 days of the resurgence. The city now is sparing no effort to promote a return to ordinary life in steps, Zhang added.

“Next, we will strive to achieve the dynamic clearance of COVID-19 as soon as possible,” he said. “Local communities will be placed under different levels of control and prevention to gradually restore order to residents’ lives.”

Jilin reported 325 new local cases and 674 asymptomatic carriers Wednesday, the provincial Health Commission said Thursday.

In another development, A total of 322 COVID-19 patients were released from medical observation and left the National Exhibition and Convention Center (NECC), Shanghai’s largest makeshift hospital, Thursday morning, local authorities said.

They were the first batch of patients discharged from the NECC since it started admitting COVID-19 mild cases and asymptomatic carriers April 9, according to the municipal epidemic control office.

The municipal health commission of Shanghai said Thursday that the city currently has nine COVID-19 cases in severe condition since the resurgence of the epidemic in March.

Eight of the severe cases are older people aged between 70 and 93, the commission said.

Shanghai reported 2,573 confirmed locally transmitted COVID-19 cases and 25,146 local asymptomatic carriers Wednesday, the municipal health commission said Thursday. (China Daily, Xinhua)