Members of a military medical team head for Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, on Jan. 26, 2020. (Xinhua/Cheng Min)
The measures on the prevention and control of the novel coronavirus outbreak have been taken in accordance with the law, according to healthcare experts.
The National Health Commission has classified the novel coronavirus pneumonia as a category B infectious disease under the law on prevention and control of infectious diseases, which was first enacted in 1989 and revised in 2004 and 2013.
It also decided to take preventive and control measures of category A infectious diseases upon approval from the State Council, following the procedure prescribed in the same law.
When dealing with a category A disease, medical institutions are authorized to treat patients and pathogen carriers in isolation, give separate isolation treatment to suspected patients in designated places and implement medical observation and other necessary preventive measures on their close contacts.
China classifies infectious diseases into three categories, with plague and cholera listed as category A infectious diseases, and SARS, HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases classified as category B diseases.
