Officials can afford zero complacency as epidemic situation remains complex

A meeting chaired by Premier Li Keqiang on Monday highlighted the continued risks of new sporadic cases of COVID-19 and a local outbreak although domestic transmission of the epidemic, with Wuhan at the hardest-hit city, has already been cut off.

The meeting of the leading group of the Communist Party of China Central Committee on coping with the novel coronavirus pneumonia outbreak reiterated the need to promote the resumption of work and production while adopting targeted and scientific measures to curb the outbreak.

In a statement, the leading group said policymakers must keep a sober mind and can afford zero complacency as China's epidemic containment remains complex and challenging with the global spread of the pandemic.

It is important to adopt a general containment strategy that prevents both the import of cases and the domestic rebound of the outbreak in order to secure the hard-won outcomes already achieved, it said.

The meeting reiterated China's commitment to facilitating the commercial procurement of epidemic containment materials from other countries and ensuring the quality of exported products in contributing to the global fight against COVID-19.

China will step up international cooperation and exchanges to prevent the export and import of the epidemic while doing its best to help the international community curb the pandemic, the group said.

The country's diplomatic missions overseas and related authorities must ensure the protection of Chinese citizens overseas and help them guard against the epidemic, it added.

The meeting urged Hubei province and its capital Wuhan to continue to focus on medical treatment and containment at the community level, ensure proper treatment for patients in severe condition and in the admission of new cases while moving forward with epidemiological investigation.

The country will reopen roads between rural and urban areas and restore public transport services across the board while ensuring that logistics parks, freight stations and express delivery networks can fully resume services on the condition that adequate epidemic prevention measures are in place, the group said.

It added that provincial areas with sustained low-risk of transmission must restore normal socioeconomic order by adjusting or canceling containment measures that are no longer necessary, adding that the practice of requiring businesses to obtain approvals or file for records before getting back to work must be phased out.

Unreasonable curbs that restrict individuals from other provincial areas from returning to their jobs must be canceled, and self-isolation is no longer required for employees, except those from high or medium-level risk areas, the statement said.

Local authorities must make information public in a transparent manner, refrain from concealing or underreporting new cases and come up with targeted containment measures once new cases are detected, said the statement.