Leading group urges vigilance on outbreak

Gathering says situation is stable, but nation must stay alert to potential risks

China will adjust and improve its COVID-19 prevention and control measures while working on the domestic resumption of work and a possible increase in international exchanges, according to a statement released after a meeting chaired by Premier Li Keqiang on Thursday.

The epidemic situation in China remains generally stable at the moment, but there are still asymptomatic patients and the risk of imported infection cannot be neglected, said the leading group of COVID-19 epidemic response of the Communist Party of China Central Committee.

According to the National Health Commission, one new imported case was reported on the Chinese mainland on Wednesday.

A total of 1,763 imported cases had been reported on the mainland as of Wednesday. Of these, 1,703 patients had been discharged from hospitals after recovery, and 60 remained hospitalized. No deaths had been reported from the imported cases, the commission said.

The leading group required efforts to continue with anti-epidemic measures, strengthened medical supervision of asymptomatic patients and the continued releasing of authentic, open and transparent epidemic information.

The State Council's Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism should provide more guidance for expanding the resumption of operations in sectors such as tourism, culture and sports, according to the statement from the meeting of the leading group.

As schools in the country are reopening, the meeting said, efforts should be made to ensure they strictly implement epidemic prevention and control plans on campuses.

Control measures for the upcoming senior high school and college entrance examinations should be further detailed, it said, adding that emergency drills must be reinforced and anti-epidemic materials and personnel be prepared.

According to the statement, research and development of COVID-19 vaccines in China had achieved initial progress. This required efforts to respect the rules of science and push forward clinical trials at various stages in accordance with laws and regulations, the statement said, urging early breakthroughs in order to guarantee public health.

China's capabilities in COVID-19 testing keep improving, with its daily testing capacity now surpassing 3 million, the leading group said, calling for greater efforts to develop fast detection reagents and to manufacture portable testing equipment to facilitate testing in more situations.

Over the past weeks, Wuhan, the city hit hardest by COVID-19 in China, had conducted nucleic acid tests on nearly 9.9 million residents, with 300 asymptomatic cases reported and no confirmed cases found.

The meeting also urged efforts to improve the testing capability of some local disease control and prevention institutions and hospitals.