HONG KONG (REUTERS) - Residents in a Chinese border city have all tested negative for coronavirus following two imported infections from neighbouring Myanmar, and the city-wide home quarantine would be lifted, the provincial government said on Monday (Sept 21).

The transit point of Ruili in south-western Yunnan province launched the tests for tens of thousands of residents last week.

"Apart from the two imported cases, no local cases nor local transmission of the virus were found," the Yunnan government said in a statement.

Restrictions such as home quarantine for residents were due to be lifted on Monday at 10pm but venues such as cinemas, bars and internet cafes will remain shut, the statement said.

Yunnan's rugged 4,000-km (2,485-mile) border with Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam makes it tough for authorities to step up surveillance and cut illegal immigration as thousands pour into China, seen as a safe haven in the global pandemic.

Myanmar announced a stay-at-home order for its biggest city Yangon after reporting a record daily increase in new cases of Covid-19 on Sunday.

The order in Yangon, Myanmar's commercial capital, came into effect on Monday and would force all employees to work from home. Schools were already closed under previous lockdown measures.

The health ministry said on Sunday it had recorded 671 new coronavirus cases, without saying where. Most of the recent new infections have been in Yangon. Myanmar has so far reported a total 5,541 Covid-19 cases and 92 deaths.

Infections have increased to hundreds of new cases per day over the past weeks after the coronavirus resurfaced in the western state of Rakhine, following weeks without a confirmed domestic case.