Chongqing to gradually ease COVID-19 controls

Chongqing will gradually ease epidemic control measures in some non-infected communities of the central urban area as the city has curbed the fast rise of infections, local officials said at a daily briefing on Wednesday evening.

"We have effectively contained the fast development of the epidemic and the situation is stabilizing and improving," Chongqing government spokesperson Yang Lin said.

Chongqing, a city of 32 million in Southwest China, has logged more than 80,000 infections since its most recent outbreak began on Nov 1 and most cases were found in 11 districts in central urban areas.

In the past three days from Nov 27 to 29, the number of new daily infected cases in Chongqing was 9,612, 8,721 and 7,792, respectively . For three consecutive days, the decline was nearly 1,000 cases per day. The proportion of new infected persons in non-high-risk areas in the central city was 4, 3.15 and 3.2 percent on each day, also a decrease.

Therefore the central urban area and Liangping district, which recently reported a rising number of infections, can adopt differential prevention and control measures in the communities according to their situations.

In some non-infected communities, residents can move freely within the area.