The Chinese city of Wuhan, where the pandemic of the coronavirus began, lifted the last restrictions after more than two and a half months of strict quarantine, DPA reported.

From midnight local time (4pm GMT), traffic in Wuhan will return to normal. Flights will be resumed, cars will be allowed to leave the city, and people will be able to use the train, provided they are healthy and have recently had no contact with infected patients.

The new coronavirus is believed to have been transmitted to humans in Wuhan of an unknown animal species in December.

Of the more than 80,000 officially registered cases of coronavirus infection in China, 50,000 were in Wuhan. More than 2,500 of the 3,300 coronavirus deaths in China were registered there.