BEIJING — Chinese provinces and cities with a low risk of the novel coronavirus epidemic will fully resume public transport services that were previously suspended amid the epidemic control efforts, a transport official said on Feb 21.

Public transport services including road passenger transport, bus, rail transit and taxis will be fully resumed in regions with a low epidemic risk, Xu Chengguang, an official with the Ministry of Transport, said at a press conference in Beijing.

As of Feb 20, 26 provinces have resumed inter-provincial road passenger transport and 30 provinces have resumed intra-provincial road passenger transport, said Xu.

Ground public transportation service in 40 cities has not been interrupted, while 78 prefecture-level cities and 90 county-level cities have resumed ground public transportation operation.

Of the 41 cities that have opened urban rail transit, 33 have had their urban rail transit lines in normal operation with the rest are working on resumption plans.

In areas with a high epidemic risk, efforts should be made to meet the needs of travel for medical workers, public utilities workers and vulnerable groups before the full resumption of public transport, said Xu.