China had administered 40.52 million shots of its COVID-19 vaccines for key groups as of Tuesday, Mi Feng, a spokesperson for the National Health Commission, told a press conference on Wednesday. 

COVID-19 control has improved in the last week, said Mi. The Chinese mainland has seen no new local transmissions or suspected cases for three consecutive days and number of active cases is trending downwards for 15 days running. 

Mi warned against relaxing prevention and control work with the upcoming Chinese New Year, which traditionally sees an increase in travel and family gatherings.

This year's Spring Festival travel rush is comparably less busy than previous years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Chinese authorities have encouraged people to stay put over the holiday. 

According to Zhu Xiaoliang, an official from the Ministry of Commerce, over 48 million Chinese are staying in 36 big and medium-sized cities across China where they work, citing initial findings of a recent survey.