BEIJING, Jan. 7 -- Chinese Vice Premier Liu He on Saturday underscored smooth logistics and transportation, safe production and epidemic prevention during the Spring Festival travel rush.

Authorities should make deep research and analysis on epidemic response and make all-out efforts to ensure the travel order and encourage people to travel in a staggered manner, Liu said when inspecting work for the travel rush in Beijing.

Smooth transport and logistics should be placed in a more prominent place and the transport of materials such as energy, food, medicine and daily necessities must be ensured, Liu said.

Efforts should be made to intensify the supervision of workplace safety and enhance the emergency response during the travel rush to hedge the impacts brought by the heavy passenger flow and extreme weather, he said, demanding relative authorities resolutely prevent and contain major and serious accidents.

The Spring Festival travel rush, also known as "chunyun," lasts 40 days from Jan. 7 to Feb. 15 this year.