WUHAN — Vice-Premier Sun Chunlan stressed giving full play to the role of medical personnel sent to Hubei province, the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak, in containing the epidemic.

Sun, who is leading a central government team guiding the epidemic control work in Hubei, made the remarks on March 1 during a video conference with representatives of more than 340 medical teams that arrived in Hubei from across the country.

Acknowledging the prominent contributions made by the medical teams, Sun, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, noted that the speedy gathering of over 40,000 medics on the anti-epidemic frontlines demonstrated the strength of the country's system and has won international acclaim.

More efforts should be made to optimize medical resource allocation, strengthen safety protection for the medical personnel and strictly implement incentive measures so that the medical teams will maintain their morale in the battle against the epidemic, Sun said.

The central government team on March 1 inspected the epidemic control work at a local social welfare institute and a prison, stressing enhanced containment efforts in densely populated areas and the adoption of precise isolation and treatment measures in such places.