KUNMING, April 30 (Xinhua) -- Thirty-three counties and county-level cities and districts in southwest China's Yunnan Province shook off poverty in 2018, the provincial government announced Tuesday.

More than half of Yunnan's poverty-stricken counties have now cast off poverty, a significant and decisive achievement made in poverty alleviation, said Huang Yunbo, director of the provincial poverty alleviation office.

The comprehensive poverty head-count ratio in the 33 counties has declined to below 3 percent, while over 90 percent of local residents approved of anti-poverty efforts.

So far, 48 counties in the province have been lifted out of poverty, and there are still 40 poverty-stricken counties.