Resolutely consolidate the hard-won achievements in prevention and control - Ma Xiaowei, director of the National Health Commission, talked about the recent multi-point distribution of epidemic prevention and control

Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, August 16 Title: Resolutely consolidate the hard-won achievements in prevention and control -- Ma Xiaowei, director of the National Health Commission, talked about the recent epidemic prevention and control that has been distributed at many points

Xinhua News Agency reporters Chen Fang and Hu Zhe

With the epidemic of delta mutant strains, the global epidemic has rebounded sharply, and the pressure on China's foreign anti-import continues to rise; As of 14 August, the existing indigenous confirmed cases in the country involve 16 provinces and 150 medium- and high-risk areas; The National Health Commission has appointed 20 working groups to supervise and guide the work at the local level...

Recently, there have been many sporadic epidemics across the country, and China's epidemic prevention and control is facing the most severe and complex prevention and control situation since 2021. How to view the current situation of national epidemic prevention and control? What practical and effective measures have been taken to curb the spread of the epidemic? How to accelerate the construction of the maximum vaccine immune barrier? Ma Xiaowei, director of the National Health Commission, accepted an exclusive interview with Xinhua News Agency and answered reporters' questions around the new situation of epidemic prevention and control that has been distributed in many points recently.

Top priority: deep understanding that epidemic prevention and control is "the greatest country"

Xinhua News Agency: Recently, clusters of epidemics have appeared in many places in China, which has aroused widespread concern in society. How should we view the current situation of national epidemic prevention and control?

Ma Xiaowei: At present, the global epidemic situation is up and down, the virus is frequently mutated, the Delta mutation strain is accelerating, and the pressure of China's foreign anti-import continues to rise, and a little slack paralysis will lead to "holes with large needle tips that can leak through the winds of the bucket.". Since July, Nanjing, Yangzhou, Zhengzhou, Jingmen and other places have successively triggered clusters of epidemics, and as of August 14, the existing local confirmed cases in the country involve 16 provinces and 150 medium- and high-risk areas. The multi-source and multi-point epidemic situation in a short period of time has made China face the most severe and complex prevention and control situation since 2021.

This outbreak was caused by the Delta variant. The Delta strain has the characteristics of fast transmission speed, fast internal replication, and long transition time, which increases the difficulty of epidemic prevention and control. In the early stage of the epidemic, the spread was rapid, and crowd gathering places, such as scenic spots, chess and card rooms, and construction sites, played an "amplification" role in the epidemic.

It is necessary to take the epidemic prevention and control work as the top priority at present, fully understand that epidemic prevention and control is a strong guarantee for economic construction, deeply understand that prevention and control is in place to create the best investment environment, deeply understand that epidemic prevention and control is the "great power of the country", resolutely overcome paralyzing thinking, war-weary emotions, fluke psychology, and slack mentality, build a solid barrier of "external defense import, internal defense rebound", resolutely curb the spread of the current epidemic, and resolutely consolidate the hard-won prevention and control results.

September will face the "opening season", colleges and universities and primary and secondary schools will open as scheduled, and some provinces will organize a series of major activities to strive to control the current epidemic situation by the end of August and restore social life to a normal state as soon as possible.

It is our duty to guard the land: take resolute and decisive measures to deal with the current epidemic

Xinhua News Agency: The emergence of delta and other mutant strains has brought unprecedented challenges to the fight against the epidemic, what problems have been exposed by the recent cluster epidemic? What targeted measures have we added to our prevention and control?

Ma Xiaowei: Since the outbreak of this round of the epidemic, the party group of the National Health Commission has resolutely implemented the spirit of the important instructions of General Secretary Xi Jinping, resolutely implemented the decision-making and deployment of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, always regarded the prevention and control of the new crown pneumonia epidemic as the top priority, adhered to the principle of "people first, life first", strengthened responsibility, led the whole system to race against the clock, and went all out to stop the epidemic. The departments of industry and information technology, public security, customs, civil aviation, and railways acted quickly and performed their respective duties. Local governments have implemented the "four-party responsibility" and strengthened various prevention and control measures.

According to the development and changes of the epidemic situation in the future, we propose that the risk groups of regional co-investigation must be checked in place on the same day, and all localities should "report every yang, report every yang", and quickly improve the efficiency of reporting.

In line with the requirement that the first "fence" of foreign defense input should be tightened, we have given full play to the role of the comprehensive group of the joint prevention and control mechanism of the State Council, and in a very short period of time, organized customs, civil aviation, transportation and other departments, and sent 20 guidance groups to various port cities to supervise and guide, check risks, plug loopholes, and firmly tighten the defense line for epidemic prevention and control.

In view of the actual situation in the places where the epidemic occurs, the forward working groups have guided the localities to strictly and strictly implement various prevention and control measures, implement measures such as closed management of high-risk personnel, high-risk environments and the elimination of goods, strengthen regional investigation of risk groups, epidemic prevention and control in key places, resolutely do a good job in the centralized isolation of key personnel, and do everything possible to curb the spread of the epidemic.

Strive to complete the nucleic acid testing of all staff in the shortest possible time to find out the bottom number, further strengthen the prevention and control of nosocomial infection in designated hospitals, standardize the setting and management of designated hospitals, and comprehensively strengthen the supervision of infection control in designated hospitals, as the top priority of normalization of epidemic prevention and control work.

In addition, we have also worked with relevant departments to revise the guidelines for wearing masks and the guidelines for the protection of key populations in key places and key units. In view of the current epidemic prevention and control situation and the characteristics of population prevalence, specific protection requirements are put forward for key areas such as docks, ports, chess and card rooms, cruise ships, and theaters.

At present, the risk of the spread of the epidemic in the country is generally controllable. Of the 48 cities where the outbreak occurred, 36 cities had reported no new infections for more than six days as of August 14, and only sporadic cases were reported in the rest of the area, except for Yangzhou and other places. Considering that many places have continued to strengthen various prevention and control measures and adopted stricter control measures for the flow of people, the risk of large-scale epidemic spread across the country is small.

Life first: building the maximum vaccine immune barrier

Xinhua News Agency: The COVID-19 epidemic has been delayed for more than a year, the virus has mutated frequently, and the epidemic has fluctuated repeatedly. China is pushing for the largest COVID-19 vaccination, how is it progressing so far? How far is it to build an immune barrier?

Ma Xiaowei: At present, the Delta mutation has become the world's main popular strain. The recent imported epidemic in China is basically based on this mutant strain, and its transmissibility, pathogenicity, changes in the course of disease after infection, and vaccine immunization effects still need to be continuously tracked and studied to provide a basis for the next step of prevention and control strategy adjustment.

As of August 14, the cumulative number of covid-19 vaccinations nationwide has exceeded 1.85 billion doses, and the number of people who have completed the full course of vaccination has exceeded 770 million. The vaccination of people aged 12 to 17 years is carried out in a steady and orderly manner as planned. The incidence of overall abnormal reactions was basically flat compared with the previous period, and the vaccination work was generally smooth.

At present, the national epidemic prevention and control situation is grim, and many places have a two-front battle of epidemic prevention and control and vaccination, with tight time, heavy tasks and high requirements. We propose that the first is to do a good job of vaccination in a refined way. It is necessary to accurately dispatch vaccines, reduce the queuing time of mass vaccination by making appointments for vaccination, and avoid gathering of people; The second is to adhere to the bottom line of vaccination safety. Carry out work in view of the characteristics of the "one old and one small" population, reasonably arrange the layout of vaccination units, and strictly implement the requirements such as inquiries and physical examinations before vaccination; The third is to pay close attention to the standardized management of vaccination operations and information registration.

The Chinese government has always adhered to the concept of "people-oriented" and "life first", and when some developed economies hoarded vaccines in large quantities, China has provided more than 800 million doses of vaccines to more than 100 countries and international organizations, ranking first in the world.

Prevention first: Never let the hard-won achievements of prevention and control be abandoned

Xinhua News Agency: To eliminate the "immunization gap" and make every effort to promote the return of people's lives to "normalization", what are the priorities of our work in the next stage? In this protracted battle against the epidemic, how can we better move forward hand in hand?

Ma Xiaowei: Practice has proved that the various prevention and control measures we have formulated are effective, and on the basis of conscientiously implementing various prevention and control measures, we should focus on the first line of defense for normalized epidemic prevention and control and the handling of clustered epidemics, adhere to the principle of prevention, move the threshold forward, strengthen the weaknesses of prevention and control, and strengthen the key points of prevention and control.

First, we must strengthen epidemic surveillance and information reporting. The recent outbreaks have reminded us that the line of defense for surveillance needs to be moved one step further. When the epidemic is discovered, it is necessary to continue to strictly implement the "daily report, zero report" system, fill in the major epidemic network in strict accordance with laws and regulations, and all localities should implement the requirements of reporting within 2 hours.

Second, it is necessary to strengthen external defense input. This is the most important risk we face at the moment. In the face of the continued epidemic situation of the global epidemic, the relaxation of control in many Western countries, and the increasing number of imported cases abroad, the joint prevention and control mechanism of the State Council has issued an emergency notice, and health departments at all levels must be good staff assistants of local governments, adhere to monthly inspections, and urge relevant departments to continuously improve all aspects of epidemic prevention and control.

Third, we must strengthen emergency preparedness for cluster epidemics. It is necessary to strengthen the operation mechanism of the emergency command system, strengthen the large-scale nucleic acid testing team and capacity allocation, strengthen the flow and dispatch force, prepare sufficient isolation rooms, and standardize the management of isolation points. At the same time, it is also necessary to strengthen emergency combat drills.

Fourth, we must strengthen the prevention and control of hospital infection. In terms of the setting of designated hospitals, in principle, no fixed-point hospitals for the treatment of new crown pneumonia should be set up in the city center, and all localities must set up designated hospitals in accordance with norms and standards. At the same time, the number one of the hospital must attach great importance to the hospital sense, personally grasp it, and implement various measures in detail.

Fifth, we must speed up vaccination. The more widely the virus circulates in a population and the more it replicates, the greater the likelihood of mutation. Prevention and control is a top priority, and vaccines are a powerful weapon to defeat the epidemic.