Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei to cooperate on public health issues

Health authorities in Beijing and Tianjin municipalities and Hebei province are going to strengthen their cooperation when dealing with possible public health emergencies, Beijing officials said on Tuesday.

The three neighboring governments will have their best emergency medical experts participate in a drill in July to better prepare them for potential public health emergencies.

The drill will possibly be in Huairou district in northern suburban Beijing, said an official surnamed Shao of the emergency response office of the Beijing Health and Family Planning Commission.

The three governments will also hold a joint conference and a forum on public health emergency every year.

The agreement, signed on Tuesday, also says that the three will share information of their local public health situations with each other regularly. Any one of the three should inform the other two as soon as possible when it receives emergency public health information that may affect the other two, or when it needs help to deal with an emergency.

The three should share medical resources such as medicine, equipment and medical experts to control the outbreak of epidemics or disasters.