BEIJING, March 24 (CNA) - China's central Hubei province, where the deadly coronavirus first emerged late last year, is to lift travel curbs after two months under lockdown, local officials said on Tuesday (Mar 24).

Healthy residents will be allowed to leave the province from midnight Tuesday.

Travel restrictions for leaving Wuhan will be lifted on Apr 8, and people will be able to leave on the basis of using a health code

The announcement as China reported 78 new cases of the deadly coronavirus on Tuesday, with the vast majority brought in from overseas as fears rise of a second wave of infections.

The first new case in nearly a week was also reported in Wuhan - the epicentre where the virus emerged last year - along with three other local infections elsewhere in the country.

Seven more people died, the National Health Commission said, all in Wuhan.

There have now been more than 81,000 cases in China, and the death toll has reached 3,277.

As the country tries to control imported cases, there are signs of normality beginning to return to Wuhan and the surrounding Hubei province.

Travel and work restrictions in the province have been gradually eased and Chinese President Xi Jinping made his first visit to Wuhan earlier this month.

Wuhan residents considered healthy can now move around the city and take public transport if they show identification, and they can also go back to work if they have a permit from their employer.