Ensuring safety and health of people a major task: Xi

PRESIDENT Xi Jinping yesterday called for improvement in the medical insurance and aid system for major diseases, stressing that ensuring the safety and health of the people is the major task.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, specified the requirements at the 12th meeting of the central committee for deepening overall reform.

Noting that combating the novel coronavirus was a big test for the country’s governance system and governance ability, he stressed the need to strengthen areas of weakness and close loopholes exposed by the current epidemic.

“To ensure people’s life safety and health is a major task of our Party’s governance,” Xi said.

He said it is important to improve the country’s legislation on public health care, including the revision and modification of the Communicable Disease Prevention and Control Law and the Wildlife Protection Law.

He also urged relevant authorities to speed up the drafting of a biosecurity law.

In addition, the president said the establishment of a unified and high-efficient top-down management set-up needs reform in major disease prevention and control systems as well as in related emergency response systems.

He pointed out that the medical insurance and assistance systems for major diseases should be improved, adding that during emergency situations medical institutions should treat first and then charge.

Xi added that the country needs to improve its goods delivery and supply system to ensure logistics and supply of goods during situations like the current outbreak.

He encouraged the use of digital technology such as big data, artificial intelligence, and cloud computing to better support epidemic monitoring and analysis, prevention and treatment, and resource allocation.

Meanwhile, health authorities yesterday said they had received reports of 5,090 new confirmed cases of coronavirus infection and 121 deaths on Thursday.

Among the deaths, 116 were in Hubei Province, two in Heilongjiang Province, and one each in Anhui and Henan provinces as well as Chongqing City, the National Health Commission said.

Another 2,450 new suspected cases were reported on Thursday, it added. The overall confirmed cases on the Chinese mainland had reached 63,851 by the end of Thursday, and 1,380 people had died of the disease.

The World Health Organization said that the numbers included cases going back weeks, as authorities in Hubei on Thursday started counting patients who were “clinically diagnosed” via lung imaging, in addition to those who undergo laboratory tests.

The sharp one-day increase “does not represent a significant change in the trajectory of the outbreak,” said Michael Ryan, head of the WHO’s health emergencies program.

The move will ensure patients get treated as early as possible, instead of having to wait for laboratory tests, health officials said.

“There have been some backlogs in testing and this is also going to help in ensuring that people get adequate care,” Ryan said.

Also yesterday, Beijing stepped up its measures to prevent the spread of the virus, requiring all people returning to the capital to quarantine themselves for 14 days, Beijing Daily reported.

Those refusing to isolate themselves or follow the rules will be punished, the newspaper said.

China has also stepped up targeted financing support for epidemic-stricken small and micro enterprises, the banking regulator said yesterday.

Banks have offered more credit loans to such firms, especially those in sectors hit hardest by the epidemic and in Hubei, said Li Junfeng, an official with the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission.

Small firms in the sectors of farming, breeding, wholesale, retail, catering, logistics and tourism bear the brunt of the outbreak and are more likely to suffer tight cash flows and difficulties in loan repayment, according to Li.

Procedures are streamlined for small firms in applying for loans and relending funds, said Li. Also, a “green channel” has been established to grant emergency loans to firms participating in epidemic control.

(Agencies)