A villager from Gaocheng, a district in Shijiazhuang city which was hit hard during the latest round of COVID-19 resurgence, prepares to take an ambulance home after completing quarantine on February 7. Photo: VCG

North China's Hebei Province has lowered all COVID-19 high-risk alerts on Monday. Authorities announced on Sunday that the outbreak which began on January 2 has been effectively brought under control.  

Hebei had not reported a single new confirmed case for four consecutive days as of Sunday. The only COVID-19 high-risk area in Hebei, Gaocheng district in Shijiazhuang, will be downgraded to medium-risk on Monday, said an official of Hebei government at a press conference on Sunday.

All COVID-19 cases reported in Hebei from January 29 to Wednesday were under medical observation in the isolation centers in Gaocheng district, said Shi Jian, director of the emergency office division of Hebei Center for Disease Control and Prevention, at the press conference. 

The limited scope of the coronavirus infections suggests that the local cluster outbreak in Hebei has been effectively controlled after the province implemented a series of measures including imposing lockdowns in the most seriously hit regions, conducting mass coronavirus testing and disinfecting villages where the outbreak started, he said. 

Nangong, another city of Hebei, will be adjusted from COVID-19 medium-risk area to low-risk on Monday. There are four remaining medium-risk areas in Hebei as of press time.

Though the risk level of Gaocheng district and Nangong has been dialed down, areas that were most affected by the epidemic in these two places will still be under high-level management mode, with residents either required to stay home quarantine or restricted to a certain area in the community. 

Since the first COVID-19 case was reported in Hebei on January 2, the province reached a daily peak of 51 confirmed cases and 69 asymptomatic patients on January 6. 

At least four regions in the province were sealed off to control the spread of the disease during the height of the outbreak, including Nangong and Shijiazhuang.

As of February 6, Hebei has reported 1,280 domestically transmitted confirmed cases and 36 imported cases. A total of 1,117 patients have been discharged from hospital after recovery.

Global Times