Legislation will demand epidemic early warning system

National legislators began the second reading of the widely-watched draft biosecurity law on Sunday, which will require a monitoring and early warning system to prevent and control major new outbreaks of epidemics among humans, animals, and plants.

Professional institutions should actively monitor, collect, analyze, and report information in order to predict the occurrence and trends of infectious diseases and other epidemics, according to the draft law submitted to the National People's Congress Standing Committee, the top legislature.

Relevant departments of the State Council, China's Cabinet, and local governments above county level should issue timely warnings and take prevention and control measures accordingly, the draft says.

The draft also includes stipulations on the management of laboratories and human genetic resources, prevention of bioterrorism and threats of biological weapons, as well as biosafety capacity building, according to a report by the Xinhua News Agency. Legal responsibilities are also clarified.

The first draft of the biosecurity law was submitted to the NPC Standing Committee for its first review in October. The second draft, containing 10 chapters and 85 articles, focuses on preventing and responding to biological threats, protecting people's lives and health, promoting a healthy development of biotechnology, and protecting biological resources and the ecological environment.

The latest version also calls for improving the classification management system, requiring biotechnology research and development activities to be classified into high-risk, medium-risk, and low-risk based on the degree of risk to public health and ecological environment.

All biotechnology research and related activities should abide by the national regulations of safety management, and close attention should be paid to risk changes in order to take timely responses, according to the new draft.

In China, a draft law usually goes through three readings at the top legislature before being adopted. In some circumstances, a draft law may receive fewer readings if a consensus is reached, or more readings if the legislation is very complicated.