China's southernmost island province of Hainan became the latest in the crop of Chinese provinces that lowered their emergency response to the novel coronavirus after reporting no or few new cases on February 26.

The response level of the tropical province would be lowered from level I to level III starting 5 p.m. on February 26, Hainan's headquarters for COVID-19 epidemic prevention and control said at a press conference, citing few new cases reported in the past week and no sign of in-community spread.

It followed the decisions of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and the northeastern province of Jilin to downgrade their emergency responses from level I to level II from February 25 and February 26, respectively.

The northwestern province of Qinghai also switched to level III emergency response from level I starting February 26 after reporting no new cases.

China has a four-tier public health emergency response system, with level I being the highest, under which provinces must follow the unified command of the nation in developing their response strategies. More autonomy will be granted to provinces, cities and counties under responses of lower levels.

Since February 21, provincial-level regions including Gansu, Liaoning, Guizhou, Yunnan, Guangxi, Shanxi, Shandong, Jiangxi and Sichuan have lowered their emergency response levels.

According to the National Health Commission, China's daily new confirmed cases of COVID-19 outside Hubei Province, the epicenter of the outbreak, dropped to five on February 25, and the country's daily number of newly cured and discharged novel coronavirus patients has surpassed that of new infections for eight consecutive days.

All provincial-level regions on the Chinese mainland have activated top-level emergency responses to the novel coronavirus since late January, canceling mass events, closing scenic attractions and suspending long-distance buses.