WUHAN — Vice-Premier Sun Chunlan stressed the role of scientific research in containing the COVID-19 epidemic on Feb 29.

Sun, who is leading a central government team guiding the epidemic control work in Hubei province, learned about the progress of scientific research on epidemic prevention and control, including the clinical trial of drugs and vaccine development, at a research base of the Academy of Military Medical Sciences in Hubei, and Huazhong University of Science and Technology.

Chinese researchers, in a short period of time, isolated COVID-19 strains, identified the pathogen, developed a nucleic acid test kit and sorted out clinically effective traditional Chinese and Western medicine, buying valuable time for rapid diagnosis and scientific prevention and treatment, said Sun, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee.

She called for stepping up research on tracing virus sources, transmission dynamics, medical treatment, drug screening and vaccine development.

Sun also underscored the use of traditional Chinese medicine in treating patients.