WUHAN — Hubei, the province hardest hit by the novel coronavirus in Central China, has lowered the pricing caps for nucleic acid testing services, considering the expanding production capacity has helped lower the costs for the virus testing.

The pricing upper limit for the nucleic acid testing services was reduced to 180 yuan ($25.4) per time, down 80 yuan compared with the level in some places at the end of March, according to the Healthcare Security Administration of Hubei province.

The pricing cap for the testing services of IgM and IgG, two antibodies specific to COVID-19, was lowered by 40 yuan to 50 yuan per item, said a circular jointly issued by the administration and the provincial health commission.

As required by the provincial authorities, a task force group has been formed for the collective purchases of novel coronavirus testing kits to ensure the prices of testing kits to return to reasonable levels and lower the medical costs of people.