Public health committee building begins in Guangzhou

Guangzhou, capital of South China's Guangdong province, started construction of public health committees at all levels by the end of last month to strengthen the overall planning, coordination, guidance and supervision of public health work in the city, a senior health official said on Friday.

Meanwhile, the committees will help study major issues of public health and safety, and organize, optimize and improve the prevention and control strategies of acute infectious diseases and other major illnesses in the region, Huang Guanglie, Party secretary and director of the Guangzhou City Health Commission, said at a press conference in Guangzhou on Friday.

"Guangzhou has now established public health committees at city, district and township levels, playing a role in studying, monitoring, preventing and controlling the spread of the coronavirus in the southern metropolis," he said.

"And the committees will help accelerate the construction of a public health system, and further upgrade the normalized epidemic and pandemic prevention and control work in Guangzhou in the following months," Huang said.

According to Huang, Guangzhou achieved its stage results in fighting against the coronavirus when the city reported no new locally transmitted COVID-19 cases for three weeks in a row.

All 153 patients detected in the city in the last round of outbreak have all been cured and discharged from the hospital as of Thursday.

No deaths were reported in this round of outbreak, he added.

Despite the achievement, Huang urged locals not to relax their vigilance and continue to pay special attention to personal hygiene and be vaccinated against COVID-19 in the months ahead.