Premier Li Keqiang urged more steps to increase supplies of key medical materials, improve the dispatch of medical staff and enhance drugs research to combat the novel coronavirus epidemic.

Premier Li, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and head of the leading group on novel coronavirus prevention and control, made the remarks at a meeting on Feb 10.

Wang Huning, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and deputy head of the group, also attended the meeting.

Local authorities and related government departments should carry out instructions from President Xi Jinping, put in place measures rolled out by the leading group, and continue to take Hubei province, with Wuhan in particular, at the core of virus prevention work, according to those at the meeting.

Those at the meeting stressed timely diagnosis and centralized quarantine for medical observation and treatment of patients to increase hospital admission and recovery rates and lower the rate of infection and fatality.

It was decided at the meeting to strengthen the responsibilities of local governments and enterprises, and implement the financial policy and the collection and storage policy.

Also, coordinated efforts must be made to deal with the supply of raw materials and labor recruiting, and to increase the supply of protective suits and masks of related manufacturers.

According to the meeting, authorities should support enterprises to increase the production capacity of medical protective suits by using new technologies, expanding, converting and building new production lines, and increasing medical mask supply by boosting output of raw materials and production facilities.

All these efforts should be made to further guarantee medical supplies at the frontlines and in Wuhan and other the key regions in Hubei province, according to those at the meeting.

Nearly 20,000 medical workers across the country have been assigned to Wuhan and other areas of Hubei to aid patient treatment, the group noted. While relying on them and more medical teams to be dispatched from some other provinces, Wuhan also needs to tap into the potential of its existing medical resources, to properly arrange medical personnel in the city’s designated hospitals and centralized quarantine sites.

With sufficient medical staff left to engage in local epidemic prevention and control, 19 other designated Chinese provinces should provide stronger support for other areas of Hubei beyond Wuhan.

As many highly devoted and responsible medical workers are fighting on the front line of the anti-epidemic battlefield, the group said, policies and measures should be in place to improve their working conditions, with care and attention to their physical and mental health, as well as their families.

The government should pool all forces to spearhead cutting-edge research and development of medicines for the novel coronavirus pneumonia, said the group.

The research and development team should follow the laws of science and combine scientific research with clinical virus prevention and control practices, focusing on making breakthroughs in clinical treatment, drug and vaccine development, virus detection technologies and products, and source tracing and transmission routes of the virus.

To find effective cures for the disease as quickly as possible, the group encouraged putting existing well-recognized drugs into new clinical trials, developing new drugs, and innovating treatment technologies.

Meanwhile, therapeutic schedule researchers should promptly draw experience from the recovery of over 3,000 affected patients in China already discharged from hospitals, and clinically effective medicines should be made available as soon as possible, as part of efforts to boost public confidence in combating the epidemic and avoid unnecessary panic.

As noted in the meeting, the joint prevention and control mechanism of the State Council should coordinate work to solve prominent problems, and 24-hour supervision should be set in all members of the mechanism for ordered epidemic control.

Meanwhile, problems found in logistics and work recovery should be addressed in time to ensure daily supplies and social stability with no interruption to the frontline medical staff.

Those at the meeting also asked for solid work in all fronts for a complete win against the epidemic.

Ding Xuexiang, Huang Kunming, Cai Qi, Wang Yi, Xiao Jie, and Zhao Kezhi, all members of the leading group, also attended the meeting.