Xi chairs leadership meeting on COVID-19 control, makes donation

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, inspects the novel coronavirus pneumonia prevention and control work in Beijing, capital of China, on Feb. 10, 2020. Xi visited Anhuali Community, Chaoyang District of Beijing to learn about the epidemic prevention and control at the primary level and the supply of daily necessities. He also extended regards to residents and community workers. (Xinhua/Pang Xinglei)

Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, on Wednesday chaired a meeting of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee on the prevention and control of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

Responding to a call of the CPC Central Committee to all Party members, Xi Jinping, Li Keqiang, Li Zhanshu, Wang Yang, Wang Huning, Zhao Leji and Han Zheng all made donations to support the COVID-19 prevention and control work.

Addressing the meeting, Xi said the positive trend in preventing and controlling the epidemic is expanding and economic and social development is rapidly recovering, but the situation in Hubei Province and its capital city of Wuhan remains complex and grim, and the risk of a rebound of the epidemic in other regions can not be overlooked.

Xi said at this moment it is important to make unremitting epidemic containment efforts and accelerate all aspects of work in economic and social development.

He told Party committees and governments at all levels to accurately grasp the epidemic as well as economic and social development situations to ensure winning the people's war against the epidemic and achieving the goals of building a moderately prosperous society in all aspects and poverty alleviation.

Han Yi (1st R, front), a medical staff member from Jiangsu Province, works at an ICU ward of the First Hospital of Wuhan City in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, Feb. 22, 2020. Medical personnel from across the country have exerted their utmost effort to treat the COVID-19 patients at the ICU wards in the hospital. (Xinhua/Xiao Yijiu)

The meeting stressed continuing to concentrate strength and resources on epidemic prevention and control in Hubei and Wuhan to contain the source of infection and cut off the routes of transmission.

The meeting called for efforts to save and cure more patients that are severely ill and attend to patients with mild symptoms in a timely manner, as well as prompt efforts to equip frontline medical workers with protective gear that is in urgent need.

Prevention and control work in Beijing and other key provincial-level regions should be strengthened to resolutely block any possible source of infection, according to the meeting.

The meeting demanded better protection measures for special venues such as the elderly care, childcare and mental health facilities where vulnerable groups of people are housed in enclosed premises.

Experts check protective suits for each other before entering the laboratory in Enshi, central China's Hubei Province, Feb. 21, 2020. (Photo by Yang Shunpi/Xinhua)

Protection should also be strengthened for people who work on the front line to battle the epidemic, those who have direct contact with medical waste, and those who provide service in enclosed premises, the meeting added.

Resumption of work and production should be carried out in a targeted, steady and safe manner, according to the meeting, which also called for swift and faithful implementation of policies benefiting enterprises.

The meeting also stressed cooperation and communication with the World Health Organization and other relevant countries in sharing epidemic control experience and coordinating measures to safeguard public health security in the region and the world.

Editor: John Li