China's Hebei clears all COVID-19 risk areas

SHIJIAZHUANG - North China's Hebei province, hit by a recent resurgence of COVID-19, will have no medium- or high-risk areas for the virus, after the provincial capital Shijiazhuang announced the decision to downgrade its last medium-risk district on Feb 21.

City officials of Shijiazhuang said at a press conference that the city's Gaocheng district will be downgraded to a low-risk area on Monday after local communities found no new confirmed cases during screening over the past two weeks, with all results coming back negative in district-wide nucleic acid testing.

Meanwhile, the city of Xinle under the administration of Shijiazhuang will lift its closed management, allowing residents to move freely into and out of and gradually resume life and work, said Jiang Wenhong, vice mayor of Shijiazhuang.

Xinle was downgraded to a low-risk area in early February, but the closed management continued due to safety concerns.

The vice mayor said the city of Shijiazhuang will continue to discourage mass gathering and enforce other regular anti-virus measures.

The northern Chinese province has managed to tame a rebound in COVID-19 cases since early January. It reported no new locally transmitted infections on Saturday.