Baise city in China's Guangxi province, with a population of 3.6mn people, has lifted restrictions in most areas of the city after an eight-day lockdown from 7-14 February.
Baise is one of China's top 10 mining areas for nonferrous metals, according to the city's government.
The spread of the Covid-19 pandemic has prompted some metal producers to postpone the restart of production after the lunar new year holiday. Production has also been hampered by the transportation restrictions during the lockdown, market participants said.
There were 270 new cases in Baise from 5-15 February, but a strict home quarantine policy across the city has cut the spread in communities, according to the local government. All flights had been cancelled, and all traffic lights in Jingxi and four other areas in Baise were fixed at red to prevent the use of private transportation during the lockdown. Public transportation services have since resumed in 10 out of Baise's 12 areas, with the exception of Debao and Jingxi.
There are 32 medium-to-high risk regions in the country in Guangxi, Liaoning, Tianjin, Inner Mongolia, Heilongjiang, Jiangsu and Guangdong, with residents from these regions likely to face a two-week quarantine should they choose to travel out of their cities.
