Premier Li in plea to quake rescuers(2)

Race against time

Meanwhile, medical workers are racing against time to treat the injured.

As of Tuesday, China's National Health and Family Planning Commission had dispatched 12,080 medical workers for clinical treatment and disease prevention and control tasks to the quake-hit areas in Sichuan province.

Latest data from the commission show that 5,933 operations had been performed so far and that 1,468 patients are still hospitalized.

In a piece of good news, the number of severely injured patients dropped to 189 from 265 on Sunday.

According to Wang Xiaofeng, an official with the commission's information office, most of the seriously injured patients have been sent to the provincial capital Chengdu for further treatment.

A medical expert team is stationed in Chengdu to help with the clinical management operations, he said.

Li Bin, the commission's director, said at a meeting on Tuesday that all the severely injured patients will be transferred to medical institutions with better conditions.

"The best doctors will be dispatched to help ensure fewer disabilities and deaths stemming from the disaster," she said.

Meanwhile, disease prevention and control efforts, such as emergency vaccination programs, strengthened epidemic and water and food safety surveillance campaigns, as well as setting up a routine disease-reporting system in the affected areas — particularly in the temporary shelters built for the victims — will be launched.

Also, to better meet regular medical needs in quake-hit areas, Li Bin said makeshift medical and family planning stations will soon be set up to help improve access to services.

Notably, she also highlighted mental health intervention for affected people as a priority.

Physical and mental health services will be delivered together to the quake-hit areas, she pledged.

At the same time, the executive meeting decided to call off or decentralize 71 administrative examination and approval procedures to lower-level governments, as a move to achieve the State Council's institutional reform goals and adjustment of government functions. These procedures are mainly investment- and production-related.