Coronavirus outbreak: China
Low-risk regions should end transport bans, resume activities: Official
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A security guard closes a gate at the Sihui Long Distance Bus Station in Beijing on Jan 26, 2020.
PHOTO: REUTERS
BEIJING • Chinese regions deemed at low risk from the coronavirus outbreak should fully resume normal activities and end transport bans, a senior official at the state planning agency has said.
China needs to take a more nuanced approach to controlling the epidemic to ensure the economic impact is minimised, Mr Ou Xiaoli of the National Development and Reform Commission told a news briefing yesterday.
"Low-risk areas... are to restore order in production and life, cancel transport restrictions and help enterprises solve employment, raw material, funding, equipment and other difficulties," he said.
"The current epidemic situation is not the same everywhere," he noted, adding that if control measures were not tailored to circumstances in different places, it could hurt economic recovery.
The World Health Organisation has said the epidemic in China peaked between Jan 23 and Feb 2, and has been declining since.
China yesterday reported a rise in new cases in Hubei province, the epicentre of the outbreak. But excluding those, China had just nine new infections on Monday, the lowest number since Jan 20.
China has 77,658 confirmed cases as of Monday, and 2,663 deaths, according to the National Health Commission (NHC).
Mr Ou said areas apart from Beijing and Hubei would be di-vided into "low-risk", "medium -risk" and "high-risk", and should draw up their production recovery plans accordingly.
Mr Ou said high-risk areas must maintain strict controls and gradually restore economic output only after the epidemic has been effectively curbed.
Mr He Qinghua of the NHC told the briefing that entry-exit controls at residential compounds and tourist areas should remain in place in high-risk zones, and public gatherings still need to be restricted.
Meanwhile, the National Medical Products Administration has approved two antibody test kits for Covid-19. It has fast-tracked three test kits, including the two antibody test kits and one nucleic acid kit.
REUTERS, XINHUA
