Authorities urge public to remain cautious as coronavirus cases fall

China reported on Sunday another decline in novel coronavirus infections outside the epidemic's epicenter as health officials urged the public to stay alert amid the widening resumption of work and increased outings.

The number of new cases outside Hubei province fell to 18 on Saturday, a small fraction of a high of 890 cases recorded earlier this month, Mi Feng, spokesman for the National Health Commission, said on Sunday. He added that 16 provincial-level regions reported zero new infections for two consecutive days.

The sustained slowdown in the virus's spread in large areas of China has prompted an increasing number of businesses and factories to restart operation. More people are also venturing out to shopping malls and other public venues following long days of restricted movement aimed at reducing potential exposure to the virus.

"While the production and lives of the public are getting back to normal, we should continue to implement prevention and control measures," he said. "The public are required to refrain from visiting facilities with large crowds, reduce nonessential trips and take effective preventive measures when leaving home."

Liaoning and Gansu provinces have both announced to scale back their emergency response from the first-level to the third-level of the four-tier system. Both regions have reported a clean slate of new infections for at least five days.

Lin Duo, Party secretary of Gansu, said on Saturday that lowering emergency response did not equal to loosening control measures; rather, the shift is aimed at striking a balance between fighting the virus and getting lives back on track, China National Radio reported.

However, Hubei province remains the center of the outbreak. The province registered 630 new infections on Saturday, up from 366 a day earlier but still running at a relatively low level, according to the National Health Commission.

Authorities in Wuhan, the provincial capital where the virus first emerged, said as of Friday, it had completed nucleic acid tests for the entire backlog that covered confirmed infections, suspected cases, close contacts and people displaying fever, following a three-day campaign to conduct door-to-door screening of all residents last week.

Meanwhile, in a notice released on Saturday, the city government said patients who are cured and discharged from hospitals in Wuhan should be quarantined at designated facilities for 14 days free of charge, in a bid to stamp out transmission risks and ensure the safety of released patients as well as their family members.

Nationwide, the cumulative number of infections stood at 76,936 as of Saturday, and a total of 22,888 patients have recovered and were discharged from hospitals.

The mainland death toll rose by 97 to 2,442 on Saturday, with all but one fatality occurring outside Hubei in Guangdong province.

Counting toward the total death rates includes frontline medical workers who had died of the novel coronavirus, such as Liu Zhiming, president of Wuhan Wuchang Hospital, and Peng Yinhua, a young doctor in Wuhan who had postponed his wedding to treat patients.

On Sunday, the CPC Central Committee leading group on novel coronavirus prevention and control released a circular that ordered strengthened support and protection of medics.

According to the document, subsidies of frontline medical staff in Hubei, including those with medical assistance teams from other parts of the country, will be further boosted and salaries doubled. Streamlined procedures to facilitate compensations for work-related infections will be provided.

In addition, medical workers will take mandatory rest after long working hours, receive timely mental health consultations, and access free health checkups and paid vocations after the epidemic is ended.

The circular stressed that demands of protective equipment at designated hospitals, fever clinics, and centralized quarantine facilities must be prioritized.