The quarantine blockade was lifted around the pneumonic plague-hit town in the northwestern province of Qinghai as of 8 PM Saturday, local authorities said.

This came after there has been no reports of new infections for more than a week.

Quarantine workers sterilize vehicles on August 4, 2009 in Ziketan Town, in Xinghai County in the Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province.

The infectious disease has killed three villagers in the town of Ziketan, in Xinghai county in the Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. The outbreak began July 30 and made 12 people in the town ill.

Nine patients in quarantine are in stable condition and are recovering from the illness, said Dong Fukui, a deputy prefecture governor.

Earlier one patient was near to death and another was in serious condition.

Quarantine was also lifted for another 332 people who had close contacts with the patients.

Dong ordered medical staff to continue disinfecting the region and step up monitoring over plague outbreaks.

Local authorities have handed out more than 40,000 leaflets and disks on plague prevention along with other efforts to allay residents' fears.

The World Health Organization (WHO) will soon evaluate the disease prevention and control efforts.

The town covers 3,000 square kilometers and has a population of 10,000.

Pneumonic plague is one of the world's deadliest infectious diseases; patients can die 24 hours after infection, says the WHO.

(Xinhua News Agency August 9, 2009)