BEIJING: Chinese governments of every level had allocated a total of 108.75 billion yuan (US$15.58 billion) in special funds by Mar 2 to prevent the spread of the coronavirus epidemic, a finance ministry official said on Tuesday (Mar 3).

Fu Jinling, head of the social insurance division of the Ministry of Finance, also said China had provided enterprises with 1 trillion yuan in social insurance payment relief this year to support the resumption of production.



He said China is aiming to cut the total tax burden on enterprises by 510 billion yuan this year, and was also allowing firms in the virus-stricken province of Hubei to waive insurance payments for five months.



Mainland China had 125 new confirmed cases of coronavirus infections on Monday, the National Health Commission said on Tuesday, down from 202 cases a day earlier and the lowest since the authority started publishing nationwide data in January.

Excluding cases in Hubei province, where the outbreak first started, there were 11 new cases in mainland China on Monday.



Seven of the new cases were imported, involving Chinese nationals who had travelled from Italy to Qingtian county.

Download our app or subscribe to our Telegram channel for the latest updates on the coronavirus outbreak: https://cna.asia/telegram