Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, August 16th, title: Resolutely consolidate hard-won prevention and control results-Ma Xiaowei, director of the National Health Commission, talks about the prevention and control of the epidemic

　　Xinhua News Agency reporters Chen Fang and Hu Zhe

　　With the prevalence of delta variants, the global epidemic has rebounded sharply, and the pressure on China's foreign import prevention has continued to rise; as of August 14, the country’s existing local confirmed cases involved 16 provinces, and there are currently 150 medium and high-risk areas; the National Health Commission Send 20 working groups to supervise and guide the work in the local area...

　　Recently, there have been multiple outbreaks of epidemics across the country, and my country'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 largest vaccine immune barrier?

Ma Xiaowei, director of the National Health Commission, accepted an exclusive interview with reporters from Xinhua News Agency, and answered questions from reporters on the new situation of epidemic prevention and control that has been spreading in many places recently.

Top priority: Deeply understand that epidemic prevention and control is the "big one"

　　Xinhua News Agency reporter: Recently, clusters of epidemics have occurred in many places in my country, which has aroused widespread public concern.

How should we view the current situation of national epidemic prevention and control?

　　Ma Xiaowei: At present, the global epidemic fluctuates repeatedly, the virus mutates frequently, and the delta mutant strain accelerates the spread. The pressure of China's foreign import prevention continues to rise. A slight relaxation and paralysis will cause "a hole with a large needle tip to leak through the wind."

Since July, Nanjing, Yangzhou, Zhengzhou, Jingmen and other places have successively caused clusters of epidemics. As of August 14, the country’s current local confirmed cases involved 16 provinces, and there are currently 150 medium- and high-risk areas.

The multi-source and multi-point outbreak in a short period of time has caused my country to face the most severe and complex prevention and control situation since 2021.

　　This round of epidemics were all caused by the Delta mutant strain.

Delta mutant strains have the characteristics of fast transmission, fast replication in the body, and long time to turn negative, which increase the difficulty of epidemic prevention and control.

In the early stage of the epidemic, the spread and spread was rapid, and crowd gathering places, such as scenic spots, chess and card rooms, and construction sites, played a role in "magnifying" the epidemic.

　　It is necessary to make epidemic prevention and control a top priority at present, to fully understand that epidemic prevention and control is a strong guarantee for economic construction, to have a deep understanding of prevention and control in place to create the best investment environment, and to deeply understand that epidemic prevention and control is the "big one in the country". "Resolutely overcome paralyzing thoughts, war exhaustion, fluke psychology, and relaxation mentality, build a solid barrier of "outside defense input, internal defense rebound", resolutely curb the spread of the current epidemic, and resolutely consolidate the hard-won results of prevention and control.

　　September will face the "school season". Colleges and universities and primary and secondary schools will start as scheduled. Some provinces will organize a series of major activities to control the current epidemic by the end of August and restore social life to normal conditions as soon as possible.

Responsibilities: Take resolute and decisive measures to deal with the current epidemic

　　Xinhua News Agency reporter: The emergence of mutants such as Delta has brought unprecedented challenges to the fight against the epidemic. What problems have been exposed by the recent clustered epidemic?

What targeted measures have been 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 Jinping, resolutely implemented the decisions and deployments of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, and always put the prevention and control of the new crown pneumonia epidemic as a top priority, and insisted on "the people are supreme. "Life is supreme", strengthen responsibility, lead the whole system to race against time, and go all out to stop the epidemic.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Public Security, Customs, Civil Aviation, Railway and other departments acted swiftly and performed their respective duties.

Local governments implement the "quartet responsibilities" and strengthen various prevention and control measures.

　　According to the development and changes of the epidemic situation ahead, we propose that the people at risk for regional investigations must be checked on the same day, and all localities must "report every sun, and report every sun" to quickly improve the efficiency of reporting.

　　In line with the requirement that the first "fence" of foreign defense import should be effectively tightened, we have given full play to the role of the comprehensive team of the State Council's joint defense and joint control mechanism. In a very short period of time, we have organized customs, civil aviation, transportation and other departments to send 20 A steering group went to various ports and cities to supervise and guide, investigate risks, plug loopholes, and firmly tighten the defense line of epidemic prevention and control.

　　In response to the actual situation in the place where the epidemic occurred, the front working groups instructed the locality to strictly implement various prevention and control measures, implement measures such as closed management of high-risk personnel, high-risk environments and elimination of items, and strengthen regional coordination and focus on risk groups In order to prevent and control the epidemic situation, we will resolutely carry out the centralized isolation of key personnel and do everything possible to curb the spread of the epidemic.

　　Strive to complete the nucleic acid test of all employees in the shortest possible time, further strengthen the prevention and control of nosocomial infections in designated hospitals, standardize the establishment and management of designated hospitals, and comprehensively strengthen the supervision of designated hospitals as a normalized epidemic prevention and control work The top priority.

　　In addition, we will work with relevant departments to revise the guidelines for wearing masks and the guidelines for the protection of key populations in key locations and key units.

In response to the current epidemic prevention and control situation and the characteristics of the population, specific protection requirements have been 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 nationwide is generally under control.

Among the 48 cities where the epidemic occurred, 36 cities had not reported new infections for more than 6 days as of August 14. Except for Yangzhou and other places, only sporadic cases were reported in the rest of the area.

Taking into account that many places have continued to strengthen various prevention and control measures, and have adopted relatively strict control measures on the movement of people, the risk of large-scale epidemic spread across the country is relatively small.

Life is supreme: building the largest vaccine immune barrier

　　Xinhua News Agency reporter: The new crown pneumonia epidemic has been delayed for more than a year. The virus mutates frequently and the epidemic fluctuates repeatedly.

China is advancing the largest scale of new coronavirus vaccination. What is the current progress?

How far is it to build an immune barrier?

　　Ma Xiaowei: At present, the delta mutant strain has become the main epidemic strain in the world.

my country’s recent imported epidemics are basically dominated by this variant, and its transmission, pathogenicity, changes in the course of the disease after infection, and vaccine immunity need to be followed up and studied continuously to provide a basis for the next adjustment of prevention and control strategies.

　　As of August 14, the country has reported a total of 1.85 billion doses of new crown virus vaccine, and the number of people who have completed the entire vaccination has exceeded 770 million.

The vaccination work for the 12 to 17-year-old population is proceeding steadily and orderly as planned.

The overall incidence of abnormal reactions was basically the same as that of the previous period, and the vaccination work was generally smooth.

　　The current situation of epidemic prevention and control across the country is severe. In many places, epidemic prevention and control and vaccination are fighting on two fronts. Time is tight, tasks are heavy, and requirements are high.

We propose that one is to refine vaccination.

It is necessary to accurately schedule vaccines, reduce the queuing time of the masses for vaccination, and avoid crowds by making appointments for vaccination. The second is to stick to the bottom line of vaccination safety.

According to the characteristics of the population of "one old and one small", work was carried out to rationally arrange the layout of inoculation units, and strictly implement the requirements of pre-vaccination inquiries and physical examinations; 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". When some advanced economies are hoarding 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 prevention and control results go to waste

　　Xinhua News Agency reporter: To eliminate the "immune gap" and make every effort to promote the return of people's lives to "normalization", what are our priorities in the next phase?

In this protracted battle against the epidemic, how can we better join hands to move forward?

　　Ma Xiaowei: Practice has proved that the various prevention and control measures we have formulated are effective. On the basis of conscientiously implementing various prevention and control measures, we must focus on the first line of defense for normalized epidemic prevention and control and the treatment of clustered epidemics, and adhere to prevention. The main point is to move forward, the weak points of prevention and control are strengthened, and the key points of prevention and control are strengthened.

　　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 an epidemic is discovered, it is necessary to continue to strictly implement the "daily report, zero report" system, and to fill in the pandemic network in strict accordance with laws and regulations, and all localities must implement the requirement of reporting within 2 hours.

　　Second, we must strengthen external defense input.

This is the most important risk we are currently facing.

Faced with the severe situation of the continuing global epidemic, the relaxation of control in many Western countries, and the increasing number of imported cases abroad, the State Council’s joint prevention and control mechanism has issued an emergency notice, and health departments at all levels must be good staff assistants to local governments and insist on monthly investigations. , Supervise and urge relevant departments to continuously improve all aspects of epidemic prevention and control.

　　Third, we must strengthen emergency response preparations for clustered epidemics.

It is necessary to strengthen the operating mechanism of the emergency command system, strengthen the large-scale nucleic acid testing team and capacity, strengthen the circulation force, prepare enough isolation rooms, and regulate the management of isolation points.

At the same time, it is necessary to strengthen actual emergency drills.

　　Fourth, we must strengthen the prevention and control of hospital sense.

In terms of the establishment of designated hospitals, in principle, no designated hospitals for the treatment of new coronary pneumonia should be set up in the city center, and designated hospitals must be set up in accordance with the norms and standards.

At the same time, the top leaders of the hospital must attach great importance to the sense of hospitality, grasp it personally, and implement various measures in detail.

　　Fifth, we must speed up vaccination.

The wider the virus is in the population, the more it replicates, and the greater the possibility of mutation.

Prevention and control is the top priority, and vaccines are a powerful weapon to defeat the epidemic.