Urumqi, the capital city of Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, will gradually restore normal production and living conditions, starting from 8 am on Tuesday, as the number of new COVID-19 cases has dropped in the city for nine consecutive days, according to an official post on Monday.

Urban public transportation, except for subways, will gradually resume in batches, including buses and BRT line operations, and taxi operations will be fully resumed, said the post on the local news website ts.cn.

The city will adopt dynamic implementation of social control measures, in view of the rapid spread and hidden and complicated transmission routes of Omicron BA.5.2 involved in this round of the epidemic, posing difficulties for prevention and control work.

Under the premise of strictly implementing epidemic control measures, Urumqi will also gradually restore the functions of normal services such as vegetable direct-sale stores, barber shops, convenience stores and grocery stores. Other businesses such as cinemas, gyms and KTVs will remain temporarily closed.

For low-risk areas, the district epidemic prevention and control headquarters will fully evaluate and judge the situation. Meanwhile, corresponding dynamic control measures will still be in place for high- and medium risk areas.

As the risk has not been completely eliminated, restaurants must continue to suspend dine-in services and only provide in-store pickup and online reservations for ordering and delivery services.

Large-scale forums, exhibitions, wedding or funeral banquets, night markets and other gathering activities will also not be held for the time being.