China says its COVID-19 peak is over

Life back to normal, production fully resumed in Xinjiang

BEIJING: China on Thursday said the peak of the current outbreak of novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the country is over, hours after the World Health Organisation declared the epidemic outbreak as a global pandemic.

New cases keep declining and the overall epidemic situation remains at a low level in China, Mi Feng, a spokesperson for the National Health Commission said at a press conference in Beijing.

Mi said the number of new confirmed cases in Wuhan, the epicenter in central China's Hubei Province, has dropped to a single digit, with only eight cases reported on Wednesday. No new cases had been reported in other cities of Hubei for a week in a row, he said. Only seven new cases were reported on the Chinese mainland outside Hubei, but six were imported from overseas, he added.

Mi said the top priority should be given to treating patients and vowed no relaxation or loose efforts in the epidemic prevention and control work. This developed as the WHO announced that the COVID-19 outbreak can be characterised as a “pandemic” as the virus spreads increasingly worldwide.

There are now more than 118,000 confirmed cases in 114 countries and regions, and 4,291 people have lost their lives, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press conference in Geneva, noting that the number of coronavirus cases, deaths and affected countries is expected to climb even higher in the days and weeks ahead.



The WHO's characterisation of the COVID-19 outbreak as a “pandemic” was to call on its members once again to make further political commitment and put in more resources to turn things around in the battle against the disease, Mi said.

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, China has taken the most comprehensive, strictest and most thorough prevention and control measures, gaining precious time for itself and other countries and regions in setting up their own epidemic prevention and control, he added.

“China is paying close attention to the current rapid global spread of the epidemic, and can empathise with other countries in terms of the pressure in prevention and control,” Mi said.

Meanwhile, northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region has fully restarted production and local people’s life has returned to normal as the region has reported no confirmed cases of COVID-19 for 23 consecutive days.

But measures still need to be in place to prevent any imported infections, according to the regional headquarters on the prevention and control of the coronavirus outbreak.

To date, 91.7 per cent of Xinjiang’s large enterprises with annual business turnover of at least 20 million yuan have resumed work, while all centrally-administered state-owned enterprises in Xinjiang have restarted working.

Across the region, public transport, coach buses, trains and planes have all resumed operations, while businesses are gradually restarting operations amid strict disinfection measures.