URUMQI, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- Authorities of Kashgar Prefecture in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region decided to downgrade Shufu County to a low-risk area for COVID-19 starting from Wednesday, local health authorities said.

Based on the progress of containing the epidemic situation, the COVID-19 epidemic prevention and control headquarters of Kashgar is about to downgrade two townships in Shufu from high-risk areas to low-risk areas and another one from medium-risk to low-risk.

No new confirmed COVID-19 cases or asymptomatic cases were reported in Xinjiang on Monday, the regional health commission said on Tuesday.

It was the ninth consecutive day that Xinjiang reported zero increase in novel coronavirus infections since the containment of recent cluster infections.

By Monday, Xinjiang had 15 existing confirmed cases and 104 asymptomatic cases.

From Oct. 24 to Monday, 63 patients had been discharged from hospitals after recovery, and 248 asymptomatic cases were released from medical observation in Xinjiang.