The air quality deterioration is expected to last since Monday till Wednesday. By March 14 the temperature will drop and the smog will clear, according to the statement.
The citizens are recommended not to use fireworks, arrange open-air picnics and conduct dusty construction works during the period, the statement added.
The four-level color-coded air quality alert system was introduced in China in 2013. The city authorities declare the red alert level when there is smog for over three consecutive days. The orange level is introduced when the smog remains for three days, the yellow one is declared after two days of smog, and the blue level is introduced after one day of smog.
In October, China’s president Xi Jinping announced that fighting pollution was the country’s key task through 2020. The government designed a plan to introduce a system that would make polluters to “repair damage to the environment or pay compensation.”