In Shandong province, Pingdu, a county-level city in Qingdao, reported one newly confirmed case and one asymptomatic carrier on Wednesday, all related to Heilongjiang, according to the provincial health commission.

The two patients－a couple－left Suihua on Jan 11, returned to their home in Pingdu on Jan 14, and tested positive on Wednesday, the commission said.

Improvement has been seen in Hebei province, which saw a third successive day with fewer than 50 newly confirmed cases on Wednesday, the Hebei Provincial Health Commission said.

The province identified 20 newly confirmed cases and four asymptomatic carriers on Wednesday.

Also on Wednesday, the province discharged eight COVID-19 patients and 17 asymptomatic carriers from hospital, increasing total recoveries to 65 since Jan 13, when the first recovered patients were discharged.

In Sanhe, a county-level city in Langfang, Hebei, that neighbors Beijing's Shunyi and Tongzhou districts and is home to many people who commute to Beijing for work, normal transport links with the capital have resumed.

People traveling to Beijing need to be able to show a negative nucleic acid test result from the previous 72 hours if their journeys are necessary, Wang Linhui, vice-mayor of the city, said on Thursday.