Our studies contribute to the literature by examining the impact of continued increasing provincial public health threats on the local firms’ market performance. This examination is important because it sheds light on how firms’ market reaction affected by the regional change in COVID-19 cases. Unlike prior studies that test the market reaction at the stock market level, this paper provides evidence that continued increasing regional threats can enhance the event risk and environmental uncertainty and that investors’ risk assessment can reduce the local firms’ accumulative abnormal return. Moreover, this paper complements studies on the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on the market reaction by focusing on moderate effects of province-specific factors. Specifically, we provide new insight into which provincial factors mitigate the negative effect of continued increasing public health threats on firms’ market performance (e.g., the provinces characterized by stronger information accessibility and economic growth).