Coronavirus outbreak: Four Chinese provinces lower emergency response

Local health commissions have said that four Chinese provinces Yunnan, Guangdong, Shanxi and Guizhou have lowered their coronavirus emergency response measures on February 24. China reportedly has a four-tier response system for the public health emergencies which determines the implementation with Level 1 being most serious. However, according to international reports, Yunnan and Guizhou have cut their emergency responses from level I to level II while Guangdong and Shanxi lowered it to level II.

Gansu was the first province to lower its emergency response to the deadly coronavirus which has now claimed over 2,500 lives in China. The National Health Commission reportedly confirmed 150 new cases. The total number of confirmed cases within China also hit nearly 77,000. First detected in the city of Wuhan, in Hubei Province of China, the virus outbreak has now spread across more than 25 countries since December 2019 and more than 1,700 people have recovered from the disease, whereas, nearly 12,500 Coronavirus patients have by now been discharged from hospitals.

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'Largest public health emergency'

While four provinces have lowered the intensity of their response to the coronavirus outbreak, China's President Xi Jinping reportedly said that the epidemic is communist China's 'largest public health emergency' since its founding in 1949. Meanwhile, the death toll in China has surpassed 2,500 and the National Health Commission reportedly confirmed 150 new cases.

Jinping further called the outbreak a 'crisis' and said that the epidemic has the 'fastest transmission' and the widest range of infection which has been the most difficult to prevent and control. While speaking to a Chinese local media outlet, the President further acknowledged that the epidemic will have a 'large impact on the economy and society', however, he also stressed that the effects will be 'short-term' and 'controllable'.

His comments come as the total number of confirmed cases within China hit nearly 77,000. While on the other hand, South Korea raised the alert level to 'highest' as the number of infected people in the nation soared. 

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(With agency inputs)