China's Hubei extends Spring Festival holiday for epidemic control

Central China's Hubei Province on Wednesday announced to extend the Spring Festival holiday for enterprises and postpone school openings in its fight against the novel coronavirus epidemic.

Hubei, the epicenter of the epidemic, extended the holiday for company staff to February 13, Hubei Governor Wang Xiaodong told a press briefing on Wednesday night.

Meanwhile, all local schools will postpone the opening of the spring semester until further notice as the province is in a critical period of the epidemic control, he said.

By Tuesday, a total of 3,554 cumulative confirmed cases of the new pneumonia had been reported in Hubei, with 125 deaths. Meanwhile, 3,349 patients remained hospitalized, with 671 in severe condition and 228 in critical condition.

Liu Yingzi, director of the Hubei Provincial Health Commission, said the province, with 50,000 test kits in stock, now has 89 hospitals and other medical institutions that are able to do up to 6,000 testings a day.

The province has designated 131 hospitals, including 30 in the provincial capital of Wuhan, for confirmed and suspected new pneumonia patients, Liu told reporters.

More than 170,000 local medical workers are now fighting the epidemic and 6,097 more from 29 provincial-level regions and the military had also joined by Tuesday, said Liu.