URUMQI, March 8 (Xinhua) -- The last patient infected with COVID-19 in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region has been cured and discharged from hospital on Sunday.

This has brought the total confirmed case in the region, as well as the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, to zero.

Xinjiang reported its first coronavirus infection on Jan. 23 and a total of 76 confirmed cases have been reported in the autonomous region and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps. No new infections have been reported for 18 days in a row.

Both the autonomous region and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps have downgraded their emergency response toward the novel coronavirus outbreak from level two to level three.