Less-affected areas lower emergency response levels

Some less-affected provinces, such as Gansu, Liaoning and Guizhou, have lowered their epidemic emergency response levels in line with related laws and regulations and their respective epidemic control situations.

Gansu in Northwest China lowered its alarm level from Level I to Level III on Friday, with 65.3 percent of its scaled industrial enterprises resuming production, according to Zang Qiuhua, director of the provincial department of industry and information technology.

Shanxi, Yunnan, Guangdong and Guizhou took similar measures recently, with local authorities beefing up efforts to coordinate with relevant departments to help companies resolve difficulties in getting employees back to work, reviving industrial chains and ensuring smooth logistics.

As of Monday, over 90 percent of enterprises and companies above a certain designated scale in East China's Zhejiang province had resumed production, according to a news conference held by the State Council Information Office. In addition, over 90 percent of exporting enterprises with an average exporting volume of above $10 million have resumed production, the Ministry of Commerce said.

Leading companies played a large role in the return to work. Among all 921 companies valued at more than 1 billion yuan ($142.38 million) in Zhejiang, 850, or 92.3 percent, had resumed work as of Feb 18, including 137 in Jiaxing and 11 in Zhoushan.

Manufacturers of major preventative supplies and supporting industries are also quickly resuming work. The average capacity utilization rate of 52 of the province's major manufacturers exceeded 86 percent, and 75 percent of its supporting industries resumed work.

Small and micro-sized enterprises, which are facing more obstacles in resuming work, still saw progress, with 476 parks, or 60 percent, and 6,083 companies resuming normal operations as of Feb 18.