YINCHUAN, March 16 (Xinhua) -- Northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region has seen the number of COVID-19 patients drop to zero as the last two patients were discharged Monday afternoon.

The region has also reported zero deaths from its 75 total confirmed cases, no infections of medical staff and cleared all close contacts.

Zhou Wei, vice president of the General Hospital of Ningxia Medical University and head of the regional team of experts for COVID-19 treatment, said Ningxia has achieved a 100-percent cure rate and removed 4,719 cases from medical observation.

Ningxia has so far allocated 170 million yuan (about 24.3 million U.S. dollars) of medical insurance funds to medical institutions at all levels across the region.