China's coronavirus epidemic has passed its peak, its top health commission says, after it logged just eight new infections in Hubei province, the first time the epicentre of the outbreak recorded a daily tally of fewer than 10.
With the marked slowdown of the spread of the virus, more businesses have reopened with authorities cautiously easing strict containment measures.
Hubei province, where the coronavirus emerged late last year, announced on Thursday a further loosening of travel restrictions and will also allow some industries to resume production in two of its cities and two counties.
"Broadly speaking, the peak of the epidemic has passed for China," said Mi Feng, a spokesman for the National Health Commission.
"The increase of new cases is falling," he said.
Hubei's economy, driven by manufacturing and trade, including a large auto sector in the provincial capital of Wuhan, had been virtually shuttered since 23 January.
Medical staff after patients were discharged at Wuchang Fangcang Hospital, a temporary hospital treating people infected with the coronavirus Source: AP
While the virus is spreading quickly globally, its progress in China has slowed markedly in the past seven days, a result of strict measures imposed to control the movement of people and traffic, including the virtual lockdown of Wuhan, a city of 11 million people.
Wuhan accounted for all of the new cases recorded on Wednesday, the National Health Commission said. Outside of Hubei, mainland China had seven new cases, six of them imported from abroad.
Of the six imported cases, Guangdong province accounted for three, while Gansu province and Henan province were responsible for two and one, respectively.
In all, 15 new cases were recorded in mainland China on Wednesday, down from 24 the day before.
That brings the total number of cases recorded in mainland China to 80,793.
As of Tuesday, 62,793 people had recovered and been discharged from hospital, or nearly 80 per cent of the infections.
As of the end of Wednesday, the death toll in mainland China had reached 3,169, up by 11 from the previous day. Hubei accounted for 10 of the new deaths, including seven in Wuhan.
The ruling Communist Party newspaper, the People's Daily, warned in an editorial that while the number of new virus cases in China was falling, conditions were still difficult and there were risks of more outbreaks.
China is focusing on restarting factories and businesses hit by the containment policies that prevented millions of people from travelling and returning to work after an extended Lunar New Year holiday.
Factory activity plunged to its worst level on record in February and while more businesses have reopened in recent weeks as containment measures have been eased, analysts do not expect activity to return to normal until April.
Airlines have been hit particularly hard. China's airlines reported total losses of 20.96 billion yuan ($A4.7 billion) in February.
Local governments must do their utmost to ensure people returned to work as soon as possible, the official China Daily said in an editorial.
Many businesses faced labour shortages and supply-chain disruptions, the China Daily said.
