The country plans to build permanent facilities and more COVID-19 test sites to reinforce its capability to prevent and control COVID-19 in the early stage of infection, according to Ma Xiaowei, director of China’s National Health Commission (NHC).
Ma unveiled China’s blueprint to prevent and contain the virus in the long run in an article published in the CPC Central Committee’s flagship magazine Qiushi Journal on Monday.
China will build up permanent hospitals as well as quarantine sites to enhance its capability of admitting COVID-19 patients, Ma wrote. It will also normalize COVID-19 monitoring mechanisms and carry out testing on a weekly basis.
Provincial capitals and cities with a population of over 10 million will set up more COVID-19 testing sites so that each resident can reach one within a 15-minute walk. In addition, the blueprint calls for more laboratories to examine samples, including public labs and third-party laboratories.
Ma said the country needs to make an effort to contain the virus without affecting people’s basic medical demands and daily life. Hospital departments such as emergency, dialysis, surgery and ICU cannot be shut down unless essential, he noted.
He warned that when treating COVID-19 infections, China should prevent asymptomatic cases from overflooding medical resources and provide proper treatment for COVID-19 cases before they get serious.
Ma also called for improving the medical triage system, increasing the number of ICU beds and beefing up first aid efforts.
The mainland Monday reported 162 locally transmitted confirmed COVID-19 cases, of which 77 were in Shanghai, according to the NHC’s report yesterday.
Apart from Shanghai, eight other provincial-level regions on the mainland saw new local COVID-19 cases, including 43 in Beijing.
Shanghai also reported 746 locally transmitted asymptomatic infections of the novel coronavirus Monday, out of a total of 887 local asymptomatic carriers newly identified on the mainland.