A medical worker collects a throat swab sample from a resident in Nangong county, Xingtai, Hebei Province, on January 17. Photo: Xinhua

 
North China’s Hebei Province has seen a decline in new daily COVID-19 cases for five straight days, a positive sign that the epidemic in the province has been significantly curbed, said the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Wednesday. 

Hebei reported 19 new confirmed cases on Wednesday, the fifth day the daily number had declined. The number of reported cases in the past four days has been 35, 54, 72 and 90. 

Feng Zijian, deputy director of CDC, said at a press conference held by the State Council on Wednesday that the decreasing number of daily cases shows that the growth of the epidemic in Hebei has been significantly contained. 

The province had a total of 818 locally transmitted active cases as of 12am Tuesday, including eight in critical condition and 23 severely ill. 

Shijiazhuang, the provincial capital and the hardest hit region in the province, started a new round of city-wide testing for COVID-19 on Wednesday, with results expected within three days. 

More than 900 medical workers have been sent to Gaocheng district, the epicenter of the outbreak in Shijiazhuang, and to the city of Xinle to coordinate the testing of residents, said an official from the local testing team at a press conference on Wednesday. 

Other cities in Hebei have dispatched more than 2,200 sampling personnel and 36 laboratory technical workers to aid Shijiazhuang’s mass testing.

Other provinces, such as East China’s Zhejiang Province and Jiangsu Province, have also sent 170 testing staff to provide help, according to Zhang Guojun, deputy director of Shijiazhuang Health Commission.  

Though the local epidemic situation is still considered serious, the decreasing number of new daily cases brings a ray of hope to residents since the outbreak started on January 2. 

Shijiazhuang entered a lockdown on January 7. All residents in the city are still required to stay home, except for medical staff, delivery personnel, heat and water maintenance workers and other anti-epidemic workers.