Prevention and control against the COVID-19 epidemic in key areas will be further improved, with higher testing capacities and wider range, according to those at a meeting presided over by Premier Li Keqiang on April 22.

Premier Li also is a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, and head of the leading group on novel coronavirus prevention and control. Wang Huning, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and deputy head of the leading group, also attended the meeting.

Those at the meeting stressed the significance of precise prevention and control, and efforts to find and reinforce weak links, to prevent the epidemic’s return. All-around resumption of work, production and economic and social order were also called for amid regular epidemic prevention and control.

At present, clustering infections and cross infections in hospitals were seen in some places across the country. Government departments concerned must send working groups consisting of experts in disease control and medical treatment to those sites to thoroughly investigate the reasons for these infections. The results should be made public, and travel records of the diagnosed, suspected and asymptomatic patients, and people in close contact should also be figured out. The routes of transmission must be cut off as early as possible, with infection prevention work in a hospital as the priority.

According to those at the meeting, measures of early discovery, early reporting, early quarantine and early treatment must be well implemented. Epidemic-related information should be publicized in an open and transparent way, and local authorities will be held responsible for hiding the truth. The whole country should learn a lesson and pay strong attention to preventing such clustering infections, especially in hospitals.

In the four links, early discovery of COVID-19 cases is the key, those at the meeting said, noting regular prevention and control requires stronger testing capacity to allow large-scale nucleic acid and antibody tests.

This will not only help safeguard public health but also boost all-around work and production resumption backed by reasonable flows of people amid precise prevention and control efforts.

To meet the urgent need of some hospitals and ports for more convenient, efficient and accurate testing equipment, related manufacturers should improve testing technology and step up production.

More testing equipment should be made commercially available to key groups that should be tested before they return to work, and employees working in crowded places who can take testing on a voluntary basis.

With prevention and control measures in place, different regions should share and mutually recognize information about testing results to facilitate resumption of business activities, life services and school reopening in an orderly way.

As prevention and control becomes the norm, the joint prevention and control mechanism of the State Council should promptly adjust and optimize standards for accurately assessing the epidemic risk level of each region, those at the meeting said.

To cope with possible travel and tourism activities during the upcoming Labor Day holiday starting on May 1, local governments should ensure epidemic prevention and control measures with strengthened guidance and thorough arrangements.

Those at the meeting called for intensified efforts to prevent and control imported cases in border areas and at ports, with emergency plans in place to deal with different situations.

Border cities should get support in dispatching personnel needed for the anti-virus fight and essential supplies, such as devices used for imageological examination and medical rescue and treatment.

Mechanisms for regional joint prevention and control at border ports, as well as targeted cross-provincial support for border areas should be established.

Those at the meeting also demanded deeper international cooperation, more stringent supervision over the quality of anti-virus medical supplies, and easier customs clearance for donation and export of those supplies.

Leading group members Huang Kunming, Cai Qi, Wang Yi, Xiao Jie and Zhao Kezhi also attended the meeting.