BEIJING — China will halve employers' contributions to the basic medical insurance scheme to help them resume work while easing their financial burden.

On the premise of ensuring the medium- to long-term balance of fund payments, companies will see their medical insurance contribution halved for no more than five months, starting from February, said Chen Jinfu, deputy head of the National Healthcare Security Administration, at a press conference on Feb 20.

The reduced contributions to medical security premiums are expected to free the enterprises with 150 billion yuan ($21.4 billion), helping coordinate the epidemic prevention efforts and the economic development, according to Chen.

"The basic medical security fund has so far been sufficient of backing the waiver," Chen said.

By the end of 2019, accumulated balance of the basic medical security fund totaled 1.3 trillion yuan, which is enough to fund 22 months of payments, propping up its long-term and steady operation, Chen added.