WUHAN, March 18 (Xinhua) -- Four buses carrying 98 rural migrant workers arrived in the city of Huanggang in central China's Hubei Province on Wednesday, local authorities said.
It was the first time that rural migrant workers returned in organized groups to workplaces in Hubei, the center of the novel coronavirus outbreak in China.
"We received the approval for work resumption on March 11 and started organizing workers to come back to their posts," said Luo Botao, general manager of a furniture company in Huanggang. "They will start working after health checks and help the company resume production."
Fu Yugang, a worker from the city of Ya'an in southwest China's Sichuan Province, said he applied for the health certificate as soon as he learned that he could return to Hubei via charter buses provided by the government.
Huanggang, a neighboring city of Wuhan, the capital of Hubei, discharged its last two COVID-19 patients Wednesday as confirmed cases were reduced to zero, local authorities said.
Huanggang, the second-most populous city in central China's Hubei Province with 7.5 million people, had reported the second-highest number of confirmed cases at one point of the outbreak, behind the provincial capital Wuhan.
Hubei Province reported one new confirmed case and zero new suspected cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday.
