Wuhan, Jun 13 (IANS): China's Hubei province, where the COVID-19 pandemic originated in its capital Wuhan last December, will further lower its coronavirus emergency response posture from level II to level III starting from Saturday, an official said.
On Friday, Yang Yunyan, vice governor of Hubei, said the COVID-19 prevention-and-control measures will be adjusted and optimized accordingly, reports Xinhua news agency.
The province will gradually open public venues and resume conferences, exhibitions, trans-provincial tourism and classes in an orderly way, Yang said.
By the end of Thursday, no new asymptomatic cases had been reported in Wuhan for 12 consecutive days, and other areas of the province had seen no such cases for nine days.
Hubei lowered its COVID-19 emergency response from the top level to the second level on May 2.
The liaison group of the State Council joint prevention and control mechanism against COVID-19 urged Hubei to continue to make COVID-19 prevention and control a priority and advance the orderly resumption of cultural and tourism sectors.
As of Saturday morning, there were a total of 84,220 COVID-19 cases in China, with 4,638 deaths.