Factbox: China's fight against novel coronavirus outbreak
Xinhua
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BEIJING, March 27 (Xinhua) -- Here are the latest developments on the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in China:

-- Wuhan, the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak, has had its coronavirus risk evaluation downgraded from "high risk" to "medium risk" on Friday.

The coronavirus risk evaluation for five districts of Xinzhou, Huangpi, Jiangxia, Caidian and Dongxihu in Wuhan have been further lowered to "low risk," said Liu Dongru, deputy head of the provincial health commission, who declared the transmission of the coronavirus epidemic in the main battlefield in Wuhan has been "basically blocked."

Six metro lines in Wuhan will resume operation starting from Saturday, a new sign that life is gradually returning to normal in the hardest-hit city.

-- Shanghai Municipality has further expanded quarantine measures for inbound passengers and strengthened joint epidemic control measures with provinces across the Yangtze River Delta.

All inbound passengers to destinations other than the provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui across the Yangtze River Delta should undergo a 14-day quarantine upon arriving in Shanghai.

For those inbound passengers who enter Shanghai and are destined for the above provinces, the three provincial governments will send working groups to directly transfer them from the Shanghai airport to their destinations for quarantine based on the joint epidemic control mechanism within the area.

-- Chinese health authority said Friday it received reports of 55 new confirmed COVID-19 cases on the Chinese mainland on Thursday, of which 54 were imported.

A new domestic case was reported in Zhejiang Province, the National Health Commission said.

-- Wuhan continued to report no new confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Thursday.

The health commission of Hubei, of which Wuhan is the capital, said Friday the province also registered zero increase in new COVID-19 cases on Thursday. Five new deaths were recorded, four of which were in Wuhan.

-- Profits of China's major industrial firms dropped 38.3 percent year on year in the first two months of 2020, as the outbreak deals a huge blow to industrial production, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed Friday.

-- China's civil aviation regulator issued a circular Thursday to further cut international flights as part of efforts to stem the inflow of COVID-19 cases.

All domestic airlines were allowed to operate only one flight to each country per week, while foreign aviation companies should keep only one air route to China and there should be no more than one flight every week for each of the air route to China, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) said in a circular that will be effective from March 29.

-- South China's Guangdong Province has demanded all arrivals from overseas to undergo concentrated quarantine and nucleic acid testing (NAT) starting from 6:00 a.m. Friday in a bid to contain the spread of novel coronavirus.

-- Commercial flights will resume operations in Wuhan starting on April 8, excluding international flights and those between Wuhan and Beijing, Wang Benju, with the provincial department of transportation, told a press conference on Wednesday.

-- China has provided assistance to 89 countries and four international organizations to fight against the novel coronavirus, according to the China International Development Cooperation Agency.