Local and provincial authorities must continue to abide by China's current family planning policy until a new policy allowing all couples to have two children goes into effect after being ratified by legislators, the National Heath and Family Planning Commission said in an online statement issued on Sunday.

The authorities should not carry out the new policy "willfully", the statement said, responding to a claim made by one local official that the new policy took effect as soon as it was announced on Thursday.

"Those who are pregnant with a second child will not be punished as of today," Zhan Ming, deputy director of the provincial health and family planning commission in central Hunan province, was quoted as saying by Hunan Daily on Friday.