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The mayor of Shanghai Ying Yong has been appointed secretary of the Hubei Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China.
He replaces Jiang Chaoliang at a time when the province fights the coronavirus outbreak.
The decision by the CPC Central Committee was announced at a meeting of senior officials of Hubei on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Party chief Wang Zhonglin of Jinan, Shandong Province, has been appointed the new Party chief of Wuhan, Hubei's provincial capital.
Hubei has reported a sharp rise in the number of new confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus.
This follows a revision of the diagnosis criteria.
Among the nearly 15,000 new confirmed infections in the province on Wednesday, some 13,000 were clinically diagnosed cases.
These patients were diagnosed with expanded testing methods including CT scans, rather than relying only on the standard nucleic acid tests.
Now, the province has over 48,000 confirmed infections.
Some 1,300 people have died of the virus there while more than 3,400 have been discharged from hospitals.
Another 2,600 military medical personnel have been sent to Wuhan with approval from President Xi Jinping.
This marks the third deployment of military medics in the effort to contain the outbreak.
The newly sent personnel will be in charge of patients at Taikangtongji Hospital and Hubei Provincial Women and Children's Hospital.
More than 5,900 novel coronavirus patients have been discharged from hospital after recovery as of Wednesday.
Officials say each day since Feb. 7 has seen some 500 patients walk out of hospital.
A preliminary analysis shows that about 90 percent of the cured had mild or standard symptoms while 10 percent were those in severe or critically ill condition.
Officials say the rise in the number of recovered patients proves the current treatments are effective.
In Yokohama Japan, forty-four more cases of the virus have been confirmed on a quarantined cruise ship.
This brings the total number to 218 on the U.S.-operated Diamond Princess.
The ship with 3,700 passengers and crew members on board earlier stopped at Hong Kong and several other Asian ports during a two-week tour.
Japanese authorities ordered the quarantine after an 80-year-old man who disembarked in Hong Kong tested positive for the virus.
Xia Baolong has been appointed as Director of the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council, replacing Zhang Xiaoming.
Zhang has been at his new post as deputy director of the office.
Luo Huining and Fu Ziying have also been appointed as deputy director of the office.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has sacked the minister who helped end three years of political stalemate in Northern Ireland in a wider reshuffle of his cabinet.
Julian Smith was appointed as Northern Ireland minister last July.
He was central to restoring Northern Ireland's devolved government, a key element of the 1998 Good Friday peace accord.
Meantime, the country's Attorney General, Business Minister, Junior Minister for Housing and Environment Minister have also confirmed their sacking from the cabinet.
Annegret Kram-Karrenbauer says she will meet contenders to replace her as the leader of Germany's ruling party.
"At the moment, it is those whose names are circulating in public. But as I said, it depends on interest and intent to apply for this position. Then personal questions need to be asked. It can always be that more people are interested. That's to be seen in the next days."
The Christian Democratic Union is choosing a new leader and a chancellor candidate for the next federal election due by October next year, after Kram-Karrenbauer announced this week she decided to yield her post as party chair and give up running for chancellor.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has confirmed that the organization's defense ministers have agreed to enhance the training mission in Iraq.
"In the first instance, this will consist of taking on some of the Global Coalition's current training activities."
Stoltenberg adds that NATO is in Iraq on the invitation of the country's government, and that the organization will only remain in Iraq as long as it's welcome.
