A man saves a baby amid a torrential downpour in Qijiang district in Chongqing Municipality on June 22, 2020. Photo: VCG

China Meteorological Administration upgraded the emergency response level for heavy rainfall from Level-IV to level III on Sunday. 

Small and medium-sized rivers in multiple provinces in South China, which have experienced another round of continuous rainfall since Saturday, are at a high risk of flooding or causing other geological disasters. 

Southern parts of China have been hit hardest during the flood season with 12 instances of torrential rainfall. In June, nearly 60 percent of counties and cities in the south have experienced heavy rain, and daily rainfalls in nine counties and cities have broken historical records. 

The China Meteorological Administration along with the Ministry of Water Resources and the Ministry of Natural Resources jointly issued warnings on Sunday of mountain torrents and geological disasters. 

As of Friday, 121 people have died or are missing in floods in 26 provincial-level regions in China. Nineteen million people have been impacted and 875,000 people have been evacuated from their homes, according to the Ministry of Emergency Management.

The disaster has caused direct economic losses incurring 41 billion yuan ($5.8 billion), it said. 

The Yangtze River's emergency response to potential floods was also raised from Level IV to Level III on Saturday after water levels at main control stations of the middle and lower reaches of the river were forecast to continue to rise and would soon exceed the hazard line.