BEIJING, March 13. /TASS/. The spread of a disease caused by the novel coronavirus creates great uncertainty for resuming work and production in China, the country’s Vice-Minister of Industry and Information Technology Xin Guobin told reporters on Friday.

"Currently in the country, except for the Hubei province [the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak — TASS], the capacity utilization rate at industrial enterprises has reached 95%, and some 80% staff have returned to work, and nearly 60% of small and medium-sized enterprises have resumed their activity," Xin Guobin said.

However, according to the vice-minister, Chinese enterprises "are facing the problems of personnel logistics and small and medium-sized businesses lack cash and anti-epidemic means." The extent of recovery at plants of different levels differs and therefore "there is a problem of low efficiency of production chains."

"At the same time, the epidemic spread across the world creates huge uncertainty in terms of resuming production and work in China," Xin Guobin noted.

The outbreak of a disease caused by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) was registered in central China in late December 2019. The World Health Organization recognized the situation with the novel coronavirus as a pandemic on March 11.Outside China, the worst affected countries are Italy, South Korea and Iran. Overall, 127 countries and territories, including Russia, have reported confirmed coronavirus cases. The WHO says that the novel coronavirus cases globally have exceeded 125,000, with 4,613 deaths (3,173 in China).