China will take regular measures to prevent and control novel coronavirus disease and take further measures against its import at land borders, according to those at a meeting presided over by Premier Li Keqiang on April 6.
Premier Li also is a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, and head of the leading group on novel coronavirus prevention and control. Wang Huning, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and deputy head of the leading group, also attended the meeting.
It was stressed at the meeting that measures of early discovery, reporting, quarantine and treatment should be fully implemented, which have proven to be the most effective steps to prevent any rebound. Cases involving confirmed, suspected and asymptomatic patients should be reported and dealt with in time, and made public in an open, transparent and practical manner.
Medical management and epidemiological investigation of asymptomatic patients should be thoroughly done, along with those who test positive again after being discharged from hospitals. Prevention and control of clustering infections should be stuck to, and efforts should be improved in communities, and at ports and border areas to rein in the epidemic.
More care should be given to Chinese nationals abroad to keep them safe and healthy. Medical services across the country will return to normal with guidance on classified treatment of COVID-19 patients and others with basic diseases.
Those at the meeting said the risk of importing infected cases through land ports is on the rise against the backdrop of overseas outbreaks. In recent days, confirmed cases entering through land ports have outnumbered those through airports.
Local governments along the border should be wholly responsible for containing transnational cases, and need to prepare response plans, testing facilities, observation sites, protective supplies and medics for targeted control and prevention, according to those at the meeting.
The nation will support border regions to improve their capacities of testing for the virus and treating the infectious.
Port management, as well as health quarantine, along the border should be strengthened, and all people entering China should be put under “closed-loop” management, those at the meeting required. It also asked to apply stricter measures to management of key roads and personnel in border villages, economic cooperation centers, markets and trading areas in border regions.
Local authorities should ensure smooth international freight transport amid efforts to control and prevent the virus.
Those at the meeting required efforts to connect emergency response with regular control and prevention, and resume production according to real situations.
Regions at low risk should adjust prevention and control measures to help recover production, and ensure medical materials and capacities for emergencies, it was said at the meeting.
Employers should take targeted measures to protect their employees when resuming work, and should immediately tell related departments once new cases are found, while the latter should respond according to plans and report to the public.
Leading group members Ding Xuexiang, Huang Kunming, Cai Qi, Wang Yi, Xiao Jie and Zhao Kezhi also attended the meeting.
