Province recovers fast with all patients cured

The last patient of the novel coronavirus pneumonia in Shanxi was cured and discharged from the Hospital for Infectious Disease in Jinzhong city on March 13. It marked a great victory for the province in epidemic control, according to local media reports.

By that day, all 133 patients confirmed with the virus had been cured and released from hospitals in the province. No suspected cases have been reported since the end of February.

Local health officials said there were zero fatalities among the patients and no infections among medical workers.

With the waning of the epidemic in the province, Shanxi announced it would lower its emergency response from level two to level three on March 10.

Pingyao, the hardest-hit county in the province, was named a low-risk region on March 11. No confirmed cases had been reported there for 14 consecutive days, according to the Shanxi Health Commission.

The commission said all 117 counties and districts in Shanxi are now low-risk regions.

Despite the remarkable progress made in epidemic prevention and control, health officials and experts advised locals to stay alert.

Residents are required to comply with local preventive measures, such as wearing face masks, reporting their health conditions and travel history to local community officials and having their body temperatures checked.

They are also advised to wash their hands frequently and ventilate their homes.

According to national and local regulations for the prevention and control of contagious diseases, those who traveled from overseas and the rest of the country should report to local public health authorities for medical observation or quarantine if necessary.