The outbreak was caused by a new source of imports from abroad

In a week, at least 133 infected people have been reported in this round of COVID-19, and the provinces involved are still increasing. According to the National Health Commission, the epidemic is still in the development period, and the scope of the epidemic may be further expanded. This round of the epidemic has shown a strong inter-provincial spread, with 11 provinces involved as of October 24, and most of the cases are related to travel and tourism.

On October 24, the joint prevention and control mechanism of the State Council held a press conference to introduce the situation of strengthening the prevention and control of the epidemic in autumn and winter and doing a good job in vaccination.

The local outbreak has affected 11 provinces within a week

Mi Feng, spokesman of the National Health Commission, said that at present, the epidemic situation abroad continues to spread, and seasonal factors are superimposed, which can easily lead to the spread of the epidemic. Since October 17, there have been many sporadic local epidemics in the country, showing a rapid development trend, which has affected 11 provinces within a week. Most of the infected people have cross-regional tourism activities, and the risk of further spread of the epidemic is still increasing.

Mi Feng said that areas where the epidemic occurs should quickly enter an emergency state; in areas where the epidemic has not occurred, monitoring and early warning should be strengthened. It is necessary to strictly guard all passes for external prevention and importation, adhere to the same prevention of people, things and the environment, reduce cross-regional gathering activities, and resolutely curb the spread of the epidemic.

All localities should adhere to the prevention and control strategy of "external prevention of imports, internal prevention and rebound", and the existing prevention and control measures should not be relaxed. Strengthen regional linkage of emergency response, share flow and adjustment information, timely and accurately push risk personnel data, and cooperate in checking and controlling in place.

On October 21, traffic control was carried out at the entrance and exit of the expressway in Ping'an District, Haidong City, Qinghai Province. Figure/IC photo

Of the 133 infected people, 106 were linked to the tour group transmission chain

Wu Liangyou, deputy director of the Disease Control Bureau of the National Health and Health Commission, introduced that the source of the epidemic is still being traced back to the source, and the overall transmission chain is relatively clear, as of 24:00 on October 23, 106 of the 133 cases of infected people reported were related to the tour group transmission chain, involving 13 tour groups or self-driving tours. According to the existing flow adjustment and virus sequencing results, the whole genome sequence of the virus in the case is low in homology with the previous epidemic in China, suggesting that the epidemic was caused by a new source of import from abroad.

Wu Liangyou introduced that the epidemic shows two major characteristics. First, the scope of the spread is wide, the vast majority of cross-regional infected people found so far are related to tourist groups or self-driving tours, the cross-regional mobility of potential risk personnel is large, involving more provinces, and there is a risk of further spread of the epidemic.

Second, it is highly contagious. The virus in this outbreak is the Delta variant, and the respiratory samples in some cases have a high nucleic acid load, suggesting that the virus has a large amount of detoxification and strong transmission, and the risk of causing continuous transmission in exposed populations is high. "Overall, the current outbreak is in a rapidly developing phase, and the number of non-tour group cases has begun to increase. It is expected that the number of cases found in the coming days will continue to increase as screening and screening of at-risk populations continues. The scope of the outbreak is likely to be further expanded. ”

Expand and strengthen the population of immunization

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the most concerned respiratory infectious diseases in autumn and winter were often influenza. In the context of the current local epidemic and the arrival of the high influenza season, will the two infectious diseases be epidemic at the same time?

Wang Huaqing, chief expert of the immunization program of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said that since March, the national influenza activity has been higher than the same period last year; since September, the flu activity level in some southern provinces has shown a significant upward trend. According to the comprehensive research and judgment of experts, there may be a risk of influenza epidemic this winter and next spring, and if there is a new crown epidemic again, there may be a superimposed risk.

In this regard, the vaccination of the new crown vaccine and the influenza vaccine is advancing simultaneously. Wu Liangyou said that at present, the inactivated vaccine of Sinopharm Zhongsheng Beijing Company, Beijing Kexing Company, Sinopharm Zhongsheng Wuhan Company and Tianjin CanSino Company's adenovirus vector vaccine for 6 months can be given a dose of enhanced immunization. Strengthening immunization is given priority to personnel in key positions that are at high risk of infection and ensuring the basic operation of society, and it is also required that all localities comprehensively consider the needs of epidemic prevention and control such as ports, borders, and major activities, and high-risk groups at high risk of severe illness after infection, such as 60 years old and above, to expand and strengthen the scope of immunization populations.

The National Health Commission requires all localities to make reasonable arrangements for vaccination forces to ensure uninterrupted vaccination of the new crown virus and other vaccinations.

■ Response

National Health Commission: To complete the epidemiological core information survey within 4 hours

Wu Liangyou introduced that the current epidemic situation in China is still severe and complex, and in the near future, prevention and control work will be strengthened from several aspects.

The first is the measures to prevent input from falling outside the details. Further tighten the management of centralized quarantine points for entry.

The second is to strictly implement monitoring and early warning measures. Collect multi-channel early warning information from key places such as pharmacies, fever clinics, educational institutions, primary medical and health institutions, farmers' markets, and online media, establish multi-point trigger monitoring and early warning mechanisms, and improve the timeliness of information research and early warning response.

In terms of the reserve and response of prevention and control forces, it is necessary to establish a sufficient number of epidemiological investigation teams composed of multiple departments such as health and health, public security, and industry and information technology, set up circulation teams in echelons, and use new technologies to improve the ability to deal with the epidemic situation; strengthen the reserve and capacity of the nucleic acid testing team, reserve a sufficient number of centralized isolation points and isolation rooms, and establish a list of standby isolation points to ensure that they can be quickly activated after the outbreak of the epidemic.

After the outbreak of the epidemic, guide the local government to activate the emergency command system in a timely manner, focus on the golden 24-hour time node of the epidemic disposal, and achieve "2+4+24" on-site circulation and disposal, that is, arrive at the scene within 2 hours, complete the epidemiological core information investigation within 4 hours, complete the investigation of the specific situation of the infected person's place of residence, workplace, action trajectory, family relationship and other specific conditions within 24 hours, and win time for the implementation of follow-up risk personnel investigation, regional control and other measures, and strive for prevention and control initiatives.

Ministry of Transport: Many places have completely suspended road passenger services

Zhou Min, deputy director of the Emergency Office of the Ministry of Transport, introduced that after the outbreak of the epidemic, the Ministry of Communications immediately guided the transportation departments of the epidemic-related provinces to take passenger transport control measures. In principle, the county-level administrative region where the medium- and high-risk areas are located will be suspended to carry out external road passenger transport services, and the cross-city bus, taxi, and hitchhiking business in the cities where the medium- and high-risk areas are located will be suspended. Implement cross-station and dumping operation of rail transit and urban bus stations in medium- and high-risk areas, and make every effort to cut off the channels for the spread of the epidemic.

Up to now, Lanzhou, Jiayuguan, Zhangye in Gansu, and Erenhot and Ejinaqi in Inner Mongolia have completely suspended road passenger services. The competent departments of transportation in epidemic-related areas have adopted environmental monitoring and disinfection of transportation vehicles and stations, isolation and control of personnel involved in epidemic-related departments and passengers, encrypted nucleic acid testing frequencies for key personnel, and done a good job in strengthening vaccination.

Relying on the joint prevention and control mechanism of the State Council, the traffic control and transportation support special class, the implementation of 24-hour emergency duty, together with relevant departments to coordinate in a timely manner to solve the problems in traffic control and emergency transport support. Guide all localities to scientifically set up epidemic prevention and control inspection sites and special inspection lanes in conjunction with relevant departments in accordance with the principle of non-essential non-blocking, improve emergency transport capacity reserves, strengthen transport coordination and scheduling, and ensure the rapid and convenient passage of key material transport vehicles.

Ministry of Culture and Tourism: Suspend the operation of special tourism trains nationwide

Liu Kezhi, director of the Department of Market Management of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, said that after the outbreak of the epidemic, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism issued the "Notice on Further Doing a Good Job in the Prevention and Control of the Epidemic in the Current Culture and Tourism Industry" on October 20, requiring that the key links be closely focused on key periods, key regions and key areas, and the various measures for epidemic prevention and control should be carefully grasped and implemented; the emergency response plan for epidemic prevention and control should be revised and improved, and once the epidemic occurs, under the leadership of the party committee and government of the territory, the stranded tourists will be properly handled in conjunction with relevant parties. Prevent spillover of the outbreak.

There are two main initiatives for long-distance inter-provincial tourism.

First, strictly implement the "circuit breaker" mechanism for the management of inter-provincial tourism business activities. For provinces (autonomous regions and cities) where medium and high risk areas appear, travel agencies and online tourism enterprises shall immediately suspend the operation of inter-provincial group tours and "air tickets + hotels" in the provinces (autonomous regions and cities) and announce them to the public at the first time. Up to now, five provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) including Beijing, Inner Mongolia, Guizhou, Gansu and Ningxia have suspended inter-provincial tourism operations.

The second is to suspend the operation of special tourist trains. Travel agencies and online travel enterprises should strictly follow the requirements of the "Guidelines for the Prevention and Control of the Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia Epidemic in Travel Agencies (Third Edition)", strictly and strictly, meticulously and realistically do a good job in the prevention and control of the epidemic in the aspects of tourist recruitment, organization and reception, and strictly control the size of the tourism team. From October 23, the operation of special tourist trains nationwide will be suspended.

Beijing News reporter Dai Xuan

Edited by Liu Mengjie Proofreader Liu Yue