Disease control body to establish oversight
BEIJING: A central-level disease control and prevention body, which was established amid the Covid-19 pandemic, will take charge of a range of work regarding China’s emergency response capacity, monitoring of infectious diseases and oversight of the public health sector, according to a circular.
The document, issued by the general offices of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the State Council, stipulates that the National Administration of Disease Prevention and Control will also be tasked with supervising and managing local disease control agencies and disease control work at medical institutions.
Experts have said that by consolidating the responsibilities in one agency, as well as giving it more power to lead lower-level institutions, the administration is expected to help prevent outbreaks and safeguard public health.
Although China remains one of the few countries capable of effectively reining in the local spread of Covid-19, the pandemic has prompted calls for reform of its disease prevention and control system.
One widely discussed issue has been that in China, disease control responsibilities and decision-making power were dispersed among multiple government departments, hampering the rollout of coordinated and assertive measures in the face of an acute health emergency.
According to a regulation released by the National Health Commission on the heels of the circular, the commission – the country’s top health authority – will transfer a majority of its disease control responsibilities to the administration and dismantle its bureau of disease prevention and control.
Wang Chenguang, a professor from Tsinghua University’s School of Law, said the new regulation has clearly laid out a series of responsibilities for the administration.
“By sweeping these duties under the reign of one institution, we can prevent the weakening of disease control ability due to scattered management,” he said during an interview with 8am Health Insight, an online media portal. — China Daily/ann