SHIJIAZHUANG, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) -- North China's Hebei Province has planned to lift all impoverished counties out of poverty this year, amid the country's targeted poverty alleviation campaign.

Governor Xu Qin made the announcement when delivering a government work report at the ongoing provincial legislative session.

In 2018, Hebei announced that 25 counties were no longer listed as poor, and 648,000 people shook off poverty.

Another 330,000 impoverished people will be lifted out of poverty this year, said Xu in the report.

Poverty reduction has been high on the agenda of the Chinese government, which aims to eradicate absolute poverty by 2020.

Huo Xi'e, a provincial political advisor who listened to the report, said poverty alleviation had reached a crucial point, and people's health issues should be addressed at this point.

Huo, a hospital president in Feixiang District in the city of Handan, said to address the problem, the medical expenses of poor inpatients in her hospital have almost been fully covered by healthcare and medical subsidies.

Figures show that those who fell into poverty again because of high medical bills dropped from 1.38 million in 2016 to 214,000 in November 2018 in Hebei Province.