60% of Shijiazhuang COVID-19 patients discharged from hospital

Over 60 percent of confirmed locally transmitted COVID-19 patients in Shijiazhuang, North China's Hebei province, in the past month have recovered and been discharged from the hospital by Monday afternoon, according to information released at a news conference.

The city, hard-hit by the disease since the beginning of this year, has reported a total of 865 confirmed cases infected with coronavirus since Jan 2, 338 of whom are still in treatment at local designated hospitals.

There also are 32 asymptomatic carriers still under medical observation, said city Vice-Mayor Meng Xianghong at the conference.

The city is gradually resuming normal life and work, as it has reported one-digit numbers in daily rise over a week, and recently four days with only one new case detected.

Public transport in the city, including buses and taxis, are going back to running on roads and companies are resuming daily work, while residents are coming out of their homes to prepare for the upcoming Spring Festival.

Although people are recovering from the disease, Shijiazhuang still has strict measures for virus prevention and control in place, such as people have to show their health code and a normal temperature when going out of their communities, with passes issued by local government. Public spaces like supermarkets are disinfected regularly.