China News Agency, Beijing, January 19th: China's peak passenger flow before the Spring Festival has reached rural areas to make up for the shortcomings of the new crown epidemic prevention

  China News Agency reporter Li Chun

  This year's Spring Festival is the first after China implemented the "Class B and B Control" for the infection of the new crown virus. Many people have embarked on the road to return home, and the Spring Festival travel has entered the peak of passenger flow before the festival.

At the same time, rural areas are currently the key areas for the prevention and control of the new crown epidemic. China is making up for the shortcomings of rural epidemic prevention and control from multiple levels, and is working hard to ensure that people go home safely and celebrate the New Year with peace of mind.

Passenger car traffic reaches the highest level in the Spring Festival travel season

  January 19 is the thirteenth day of the Spring Festival travel in China this year, and it has entered the peak passenger flow before the Spring Festival.

At the press conference of the Joint Defense and Joint Control Mechanism of the State Council that day, Zhou Min, deputy director of the Emergency Response Office of the Ministry of Transport, said that overall, the operation of railways, highways, waterways, and civil aviation across the country remains stable, with sufficient transport capacity, orderly services, and emergency response. The guarantee is strong, and the national security situation is generally stable.

  Data show that as of January 18, the country's railways, highways, waterways, and civil aviation have transported a total of 480 million passengers, a decrease of 47.3% over the same period in 2019 and an increase of 47.1% over the same period in 2022.

On the 18th, a total of 45.699 million passengers were sent by railways, highways, waterways, and civil aviation across the country, a month-on-month increase of 5.9%, a decrease of 44.8% over the same period in 2019, and an increase of 53.9% over the same period in 2022.

  It is worth mentioning that the flow of small passenger cars has reached the highest peak since the Spring Festival travel over the years.

Zhou Min said that considering the epidemic situation this year, coupled with the concentrated release of travel needs such as returning home for the New Year, visiting relatives and friends, and sightseeing, according to forecasts, self-driving travel will become the mainstream this year, accounting for more than 60% of all travel methods.

  Judging from the actual operation since the start of the Spring Festival travel on January 7, the proportion of passenger vehicle traffic on expressways to the total traffic flow has continued to increase from 76% when the Spring Festival travel began on January 7 to 88% on January 18.

As of January 18, the cumulative flow of passenger cars on highways across the country was 320 million, an increase of 12.7% over the same period in 2022 and an increase of 11.8% over the same period in 2019.

Identify 590 million key groups in rural areas

  Medical resources in rural areas are relatively weak, which is a key area for the prevention and control of the new crown epidemic. In addition, during the Spring Festival travel season, the movement of people across regions has increased significantly. Strengthening the medical security of key populations in rural areas has become the top priority of the current epidemic prevention work.

  According to Mao Dezhi, deputy director of the Rural Cooperative Economic Guidance Department of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, and a first-level inspector, the special team for epidemic prevention and control in rural areas of the State Council's joint prevention and control mechanism organized various regions to conduct comprehensive investigations in rural areas. So far, 590 million people have been identified. Cleared the basic information of five groups of people in rural areas, including the old, the young, the sick, the disabled, and pregnant.

  In terms of establishing and improving the guarantee system, Mao Dezhi said that currently 31 provinces and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps have established a contact system for contracting people and contracting households.

According to statistics, a total of 19.01 million people have been organized and mobilized across the country to guarantee contact with key personnel, and the coverage rate of guarantee contact has reached 99.73%. 21 provinces have achieved full coverage, and the guarantee contact in other provinces is basically close to full coverage.

  He also said that in order to solve the problem of inconvenient medical treatment and buying medicines for key people in rural areas, the special work class insisted on moving the checkpoints forward, guiding and promoting the distribution of free health kits for key groups in various places.

So far, 57.17 million health kits have been distributed free of charge mainly to key groups.

The fever clinic operates normally during holidays

  "We require all localities to set up and open fever clinics as much as possible during the holidays, and ensure normal operation." Talking about the opening of fever clinics during the Spring Festival, Guo Yanhong, director of the Medical Emergency Department of the National Health and Health Commission, said at the press conference As pointed out above.

  Guo Yanhong said that for the relevant medical treatment at the grassroots level, fever clinics are the focus of work.

At present, the setting rate of fever clinics in township health centers and community health service centers across the country has reached 98.8%, and the setting rate of township health centers has reached 99.1%.

  She also said that as of January 19, grassroots medical and health institutions across the country had a total of 2.478 million oxygen devices, including community health service centers and township health centers equipped with a total of 191,000 oxygen machines.

  Mao Dezhi also mentioned that recently, nearly 600,000 village clinics across the country have been equipped with more than 1.17 million oximeters for free.

77% of the first batch of oxygen concentrators for township health centers in 832 poverty-alleviation counties have been in place; the second batch of oxygen concentrators for other township health centers has been shipped since January 17.

  People from all walks of life also actively participated in related work.

It is reported that a medical equipment company in Jiangsu launched a public welfare project on January 11, donating more than 10,000 medical-grade oxygen generators to grass-roots hospitals in all poverty-stricken counties across the country.

As of 18:00 on January 18, a total of 9,611 oxygen generators in 668 counties have been signed for.

  Mao Dezhi also said that recently, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, together with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the National Health Commission, has provided free analgesic small molecule drugs to some rural areas to solve the shortage of drugs in rural areas.

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