WUHAN -- Restaurants, bookstores and barbershops will gradually reopen in Huanggang, a neighboring city of Wuhan, once the epicenter of the novel coronavirus outbreak, local authorities said.

According to a notice issued by the city's prevention and control headquarters on Tuesday, businesses closely related to residents' daily life including restaurants, bookstores and barbershops will gradually reopen in the city.

Huanggang discharged its last two COVID-19 patients on March 18 as confirmed cases were reduced to zero.

As the second-most populous city in Central China's Hubei Province with 7.5 million people, Huanggang had reported the second-highest number of confirmed cases at one point of the outbreak, behind the provincial capital Wuhan.

By the end of Tuesday, the city had reported a total of 2,907 cases, with 125 deaths.