WUHAN — A senior official with the National Health Commission (NHC) on Jan 31 called for more efforts to strengthen prevention and control of novel coronavirus spread in rural areas.

The number of infected cases by the novel coronavirus in rural areas has accounted for 30 percent so far, said Chang Jile, head of the disease prevention and control bureau under the NHC and a member of a central inspection team sent to Central China's Hubei province to guide the epidemic control work.

Noting that the spread of respiratory infectious diseases usually spread from large cities to small and medium-sized cities and then to rural areas, Chang called for more efforts to strengthen prevention and control of the epidemic in rural areas.

It is necessary to further mobilize village authorities, township hospitals and village clinics to carry out screening, medical tracking, pre-examination and referral of patients with a fever, as well as home medical observation measures for close contacts, said Chang.