Shen Hongbing, deputy director of the newly established National Administration of Disease Prevention and Control, has been named the director of Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, according to the China CDC.

Shen, a well-known epidemiologist and former president of Nanjing Medical University in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, succeeds Gao Fu, who led the China CDC from 2017 until retirement.

The China CDC was previously led by the National Health Commission, but has now been transferred to operate under the leadership of the National Administration of Disease Prevention and Control, a vice-ministerial government department that was set up in May of last year amid the COVID-19 pandemic so as to better fend off threats of contagious diseases.