BEIJING — Ministries and departments under China's State Council finished handling over 85 percent of suggestions and proposals submitted by national legislators and political advisers respectively in 2019, said a spokesperson on May 9.

The central authorities had responded to 7,162 suggestions, or 87.8 percent of the total raised by deputies to the National People's Congress (NPC) and 3,281 proposals, or 85 percent of the total put forward by members of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference during the annual sessions of the two bodies held in March 2019, said Xi Yanchun, a spokesperson with the State Council Information Office, at a news conference.

More than 3,000 suggestions and proposals had been adopted by the State Council departments and over 1,500 policies and measures had been introduced accordingly, Xi said.

She noted that legislators and political advisers put forth more than 400 useful suggestions and proposals amid the COVID-19 epidemic for improving the public health system, giving full play to the role of traditional Chinese medicine, and applying digital information among other areas.

Competent departments had introduced effective targeted measures to curb the epidemic based on the suggestions and proposals, which will also be helpful in decision making regarding the improvement of the public health system, she added.