Chinese authorities emphasized the treatment of patients and the supply of medical resources at a high-level meeting on the novel coronavirus prevention and control on Wednesday.
The meeting, chaired by Premier Li Keqiang, noted that the prevention and control efforts are in full swing and have been intensified, but the epidemic keeps spreading, with a rapid rising trend in some regions.
The situation remains grim and complex, according to the meeting of the leading group of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee on the prevention and control of the outbreak of pneumonia caused by the novel coronavirus, with Li as the head.
Targeted measures must be taken to curb the spread of the epidemic in the country, the meeting stressed, adding that further epidemic prevention and control should be carried out in central China's Hubei Province, and Wuhan, the provincial capital and center of the coronavirus outbreak.
The meeting required dispersed clinical reception and centralized treatment, and severe patients should be sent to hospitals of best conditions or attended to by intensive-care experts.
Noting that the development of vaccines should be sped up, the meeting also demanded to step up approval for medicines which initially proved effective in clinical research for extensive use as soon as possible.
Stressing all-out efforts to ensure the supply of medical resources, the meeting asked local administrations to organize enterprises to resume the production of resources including medical protective clothing, masks, and medicines.
Local authorities are required to guide logistic enterprises, including e-commerce entities, to smooth delivery, according to the meeting.
The supply of daily necessities and vegetables in key areas was emphasized at the meeting.
The meeting also stressed efforts of epidemic prevention and control amid the return trips of people after the Lunar New Year holiday, adding that proper postponement of return should be allowed.
Methods such as ventilation and sterilization at public transportation vehicles, stations and ports should be implemented, it said.
Delays in business operation and school opening should be applied, among other necessary measures, in Hubei Province and other places facing relatively serious epidemic.
Wang Huning, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and deputy head of the group, attended the meeting.
