WUHAN — Vice-Premier Sun Chunlan on April 1 stressed making full use of the effective drugs and treatment technologies and accelerating the progress of vaccine research and development to fight the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

Leading a central government group to oversee the epidemic control work in Hubei province, Sun, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, made the remarks at a symposium with frontline experts and researchers.

Sun highlighted the importance of combining clinical treatment with scientific research, and called for greater efforts to promote innovation and provide scientific support to fight the virus.

Noting that the spread of the virus was basically contained in China, Sun underscored focusing on preventing infections from abroad and an epidemic rebound at home.

Sun also called on experts and researchers to learn from the scientific achievements from other countries and promote effective drugs and treatment technologies, especially traditional Chinese medicine, internationally.