BEIJING — China had built a team of nearly 3.61 million medical doctors as of the end of 2018, up 80.4 percent compared with 1998, Health News reported.

A total of 8.31 billion medical treatments were made in 2018, an increase of 290.1 percent from 1998, the report said.

The infant mortality rate in China dropped to 6.1/1,000 from 33.2/1,000 in 1998, and the maternal mortality rate dropped from 56.2/100,000 in 1998 to 18.3/100,000 as of the end of 2018, according to the report.

Over 84 percent of Chinese people live less than 15 minutes away from medical institutions thanks to the rational distribution of the grassroots health institutions.

During the past years, the country has been improving medical partnership and telemedicine, and contracted family doctor services to relocate more resources to grassroots health institutions, offering the public more equitable access to basic medical services.