[Commentary] On January 20, the State Council's Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism held a press conference to introduce the situation of epidemic prevention and control around the Spring Festival.
At the meeting, the National Health Commission's Directorate of Disease Control and Prevention Wang Bin said that in view of the current epidemic situation, those returning home during the Spring Festival must have a negative nucleic acid test within 7 days before returning home.
[Concurrent] Wang Bin, Inspector of Disease Control Bureau, National Health Commission
We now require township sampling and county testing in all parts of the country. We require testing agencies to feed back the test results within 12 hours after receiving the samples.
If it is said that they must return home, these returnees must have a nucleic acid negative test certificate within 7 days before they can return. At the same time, after these returnees go back, the local grassroots government must conduct grid management of these people.
At the same time, make preparations for isolation sites and testing capabilities, so that in the event of an epidemic, they can respond quickly.
[Explanation] Recently, clusters of epidemics have appeared in many places, and the task of prevention and control remains arduous.
And "Chinese New Year in situ" is of positive significance for reducing the flow of people and helping epidemic prevention and control.
Chen Yongjia, deputy director of the Employment Promotion Department of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, said that employers will be provided with employment guarantees and encourage and guide migrant workers and other migrant workers to stay in their employment places for the New Year.
[Concurrent] Chen Yongjia, Deputy Director of the Employment Promotion Department of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security
Instruct local organizations to carry out activities of "Send Warmth to the New Year" in an appropriate manner.
Encourage enterprises to issue "retention red packets" and "new year gift packages", and arrange related entertainment and cultural activities in an appropriate manner.
At the same time, we will ensure that wages, vacations and other benefits are guaranteed, and through these heart-warming measures, migrant workers can stay in their places of employment for the New Year with peace of mind.
Through the above-mentioned policy support, enterprises are encouraged to retain jobs by their posts and retain workers with their benefits.
[Explanation] Recently, mutations of the new coronavirus have been discovered in the UK, Brazil, South Africa and other places.
At the meeting, a reporter asked questions about the tolerance of the domestically-made inactivated vaccine against the mutation of the new coronavirus.
In this regard, Zhang Yuntao, vice president of Sinopharm China Biology, said that China's inactivated vaccines have broad-spectrum protection and have extensive protection against global strains.
[Concurrent] Zhang Yuntao, Vice President of Sinopharm Group China Biology
On December 30 last year (2020), when the new crown vaccine was put on the market conditionally, we also reviewed the new crown virus from different sources around the world that we were able to collect at that time and the phase 3 clinical serum obtained from the new crown phase 3 clinical base in the UAE. Blind cross-neutralization protection test.
From the data we have obtained, at the time of the day, inactivated vaccines had broad-spectrum protection and had extensive protection against global strains.
Later, we observed the new coronavirus, including some new variants of the new coronavirus, including South Africa, the United Kingdom, and Nigeria. We continue to pay attention to this change, and we have also carried out related cross-neutralization tests in the laboratory.
In the future, we will pay close attention to the mutation of the global new crown virus and do a good job in scientific research and response.
Cheng Yu reports from Beijing
Editor in charge: [Lu Yan]