Chongqing, Sichuan work together on virus response

A senior official of the Communist Party of China called for effectively coordinating the epidemic response with economic and social development in an orderly transition to Class-B management of COVID-19.

Liu Guozhong, a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, paid a visit to Sichuan province and its neighboring Chongqing municipality from Sunday to Tuesday, and learned about the epidemic response in the regions.

Liu visited rural communities, urban pharmacies, pharmaceutical companies, general hospitals, children's hospitals and community health service centers in the province and municipality.

He said that the focus of prevention and control work should be shifted to "ensuring health and preventing severe diseases".

If the elderly and those with underlying diseases and high risk of severe diseases need to be hospitalized, they should be treated in hospital in a timely manner, he said.

Stressing that great importance should be given to epidemic prevention and control in rural localities, Liu urged for efforts to ensure adequate medical supplies, especially in township-level healthcare centers and village clinics.

In addition, medical kits for COVID-19 treatment should be delivered to key groups in outlying mountainous areas, while medical personnel should be dispatched to provide services at the doorsteps of people in remote regions, said Liu, adding that a mechanism of quick referral for rural COVID-19 patients receiving treatment in medical institutions in the city should be improved.

Sichuan and Chongqing have taken measures recently to guarantee necessary treatment for vulnerable groups.

Chongqing has paid special attention to the elderly with underlying diseases, pregnant women, lonely elderly people and left-behind children, and improved the health records of the key groups.

Officials in communities and villages have visited key groups to understand their current health conditions, Chen Yong, deputy director of the Chongqing Agriculture and Rural Affairs Commission, said at a news conference on COVID-19 prevention and control on Tuesday.

Chongqing is allocating free "health kits" for the elderly over 60 years old in all its rural areas. The kits include antipyretic, analgesic and detoxification drugs and antigen detection reagents, he said.

The number of daily patient visits in fever clinics above the secondary level in Chongqing and fever clinics in grassroots medical institutions reached a peak of about 49,000 on Dec 20, and has fallen to about 7,000 at present.

Judging from the figures, we can conclude that Chongqing's peak infection period must have passed, Li Pan, deputy director of the Chongqing Health Commission, said at the news conference on Tuesday.

Chongqing has built a designated hospital treatment system and has increased the number of its treatment beds to 16,527 and intensive care beds to 3,358 since December, Li said.

All city-level designated hospitals have set up hemodialysis centers, delivery rooms and pediatric wards equipped with corresponding facilities to ensure the treatment needs of special patients, he said.