High-speed train Photo:VCG

Chinese residents will be able to travel more freely by train across the country starting from March 16, as China further lifts domestic travel restrictions amid a clear and stable COVID-19 epidemic situation.

People can travel nationwide by train with a "green" health code, which indicates a good health record, and will not be required to present negative nucleic acid test certificates, effective on March 16, the Global Times learned from the customer service operator of the railway authorities on Sunday.

The customer service operator said the travel restriction will be lifted in all COVID-19 low-risk regions, which now covers the entire country since China cleared all epidemic medium and high-risk regions on February 22.

Airports in some cities also implemented the same policy, reported Health Times on Sunday. 

Wang Peiyu, a deputy head of Peking University's School of Public Health, told the Global Times on Sunday that the new regulation comes at the right time as he believed the epidemic situation in China will continue to see a clear and stable trend due to the long period of zero local infections and the increasing number of people getting vaccinated.  

The Chinese mainland has not seen a single locally transmitted COVID-19 case for 27 days after the local cluster outbreaks in North China's Hebei and Northeast China's Heilongjiang and Jilin provinces were successfully brought under control before the Chinese Lunar New Year. 

Though China reported on Friday two patients who turned positive in nucleic acid testing after recovery, they were not categorized as confirmed cases according to the standard of the National Health Commission.  

COVID-19 vaccinations have also been rolled out across China, with more than 52 million doses of vaccines administered as of February 28. 

Chinese authorities vowed to ramp up efforts to vaccinate 560 million people, or 40 percent of China's population, by the end of June.

But Wang also stressed the need for authorities to require people to take strict precautions during travel, such as wearing masks and keeping social distance, as the risk of imported infections remains high.