East China's Jiangsu province downgraded its public health emergency response from level 1 to 2 in the fight against the novel coronavirus on Feb 24, as the epidemic situation has gradually stabilized.

Jiangsu province has reported no new confirmed infections for six days as of Monday, while 72.6 percent of confirmed cases had recovered and discharged from hospitals.

After the level lowered from 1 to 2, emergency response work will no longer be directed by the State Council, China's Cabinet, but by the provincial-level government. The changes signal the epidemic has become less severe in these places.

Jiangsu province is able to gradually resume industrial production and reopen markets after downgrading the emergency response levels. During a recent meeting, the state leader said that as the epidemic situation improves, regions that meet certain conditions should downgrade their response level and promote production.

However, downgrading the response levels does not mean one can breathe easy, as the "turning point" is still to come. If new infection cases are still seen nationwide, the epidemic prevention and control work must go on.

As of Wednesday, Guizhou, Yunnan, Qinghai, Gansu and Liaoning provinces and the Guangxi Zhuang and Inner Mongolia autonomous regions have downgraded their response from level 1 to 3; and Shanxi, Jiangsu, Sichuan, Anhui, Guangdong provinces and Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region from level 1 to 2.