China News Agency, Beijing, March 19th, Question: The Omikron epidemic occurred in many places at the same time. How can China's anti-epidemic be "timely" and "comprehensive"?

　　China News Agency reporter Li Chun

　　At present, the global new crown pneumonia epidemic is still running at a high level, and the newly confirmed cases in the past week have rebounded again, of which more than 40% are concentrated in China's neighboring countries and regions.

China's foreign defense import pressure continues to increase.

　　At the same time, the local epidemic situation in China is developing rapidly, and the prevention and control situation is severe and complicated.

"From March 1 to 18, my country has reported more than 29,000 cases of new coronary pneumonia, affecting 28 provinces." Lei Zhenglong, deputy director of the National Health Commission's Bureau of Disease Control and first-level inspector, said on the 19th that the Chinese mainland The epidemic is still in the developing stage, and many provinces are facing the prevention and control of the Omicron epidemic in many cities at the same time.

　　Regarding the current focus of epidemic prevention and control, at the press conference of the State Council's joint prevention and control mechanism on the same day, Wu Zunyou, chief epidemiologist of the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention, pointed out that it can be viewed from two aspects: for areas where epidemics have occurred, it is necessary to Cut off the transmission as soon as possible to prevent the spread of the spread; for areas where no epidemic has occurred, it is necessary to prevent new epidemics from occurring, especially in places where people are relatively concentrated.

　　The difficulty of prevention and control is how to detect all infected people in time.

Wu Zunyou said that it must be "timely" to stop the virus before it spreads.

At the same time, it is necessary to do "all" and find all the people who may be infected in the entire transmission chain, because "missing cases may be the source of new transmission chains."

　　How to do it in time and all?

The expert also pointed out that new technologies can help detect infected people.

In the process of epidemiological investigation, big data is used to sort out the entire transmission chain, and all infected persons on the transmission chain can be found as much as possible.

　　Nucleic acid testing of all staff is also a key method.

Nucleic acid testing in a certain local area must be completed within a short period of time, preferably a round of testing within 1 to 3 days.

Each round of testing should complete the screening of all the population within the scope to prevent omissions.

"Generally speaking, 3 to 4 rounds of nucleic acid screening can basically achieve zero cases at the social level."

　　As an important means of infectious disease prevention and control, the above measures can identify and control the source of infection.

In addition, normalized public health prevention and control measures such as wearing masks and maintaining social distance, as well as centralized isolation management, can effectively block the transmission route.

For the protection of susceptible groups, practice has proved that vaccination against the new coronavirus and enhanced immunity are the key links in building a strong line of defense against the epidemic.

　　As of March 18, China has reported 3,218.716 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine, and the total number of vaccinated people reached 1,273.811 million, of which 1,239.706 million have been fully vaccinated and 649.156 million have been boosted. people.

Wu Zunyou also pointed out that "vaccination is the basis of our prevention and control."

　　As early as March 2020, China has laid out five technical routes for the research and development of the new coronavirus vaccine.

Up to now, 29 vaccines have entered clinical trials in China, 16 of which have undergone phase III clinical trials overseas, 7 have been approved for conditional marketing or emergency use, and 2 have been included in the World Health Organization's emergency use list.

　　Zheng Zhongwei, head of the vaccine research and development team of the scientific research team and director of the National Health Commission's Science and Technology Development Center, said that China's new crown virus vaccine research and development work has always been in the world's first phalanx, and has achieved full coverage of five technical routes for clinical trials.

　　In addition, existing vaccinations, as well as booster vaccinations, are still effective against the Omicron variant.

According to Zheng Zhongwei, the complete vaccination of the vaccine can still effectively reduce the risk of hospitalization, severe illness and death caused by the Omikron variant. Carrying out booster vaccination can effectively reduce the risk of breakthrough infection caused by the Omikron variant.

　　"For the sake of your own health, you must be vaccinated as soon as possible and actively." Lei Zhenglong also said that in the practice of prevention and control, the new crown vaccination highlights the protective effect of the elderly group, but from the current vaccination situation in various places, some areas There is still room for further improvement in the vaccination rate of the elderly.

　　In several recent press conferences, Chinese officials have repeatedly called on the elderly to complete the entire course of the new coronavirus vaccine and boost their immunization.

"Because most of the elderly have underlying diseases and weak immunity. Once infection occurs, the risk of severe illness and death is very high compared to adults and children." Zheng Zhongwei said.

　　Taking the recent large-scale new crown pneumonia epidemic in Hong Kong as an example, the mortality rate of vaccinated people is 0.04%, and the mortality rate of unvaccinated people is 1.25%.

More than 90% of the fatalities reported in Hong Kong were elderly.

　　Zheng Zhongwei said that due to the good prevention and control of the epidemic in China, the vaccination strategy is to gradually transition from high-risk groups and key groups to people over 60 years old.

The risk of epidemics abroad is high, and the vaccination strategy is to vaccinate from the advanced age to the bottom.

As a result, the vaccination rate of the elderly in China is still very low.

　　He pointed out that if China wants to build a strong immune barrier, the above shortcomings must be made up.

"Only by increasing the vaccination rate of the elderly can we truly gain the initiative and time for our country's epidemic prevention and control." (End)