China News Service, March 18th. On the 18th, the State Council Information Office held a press conference on the situation of strictly controlling the epidemic prevention and control work. Wang Hesheng, deputy director of the National Health Commission and director of the National Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said at the meeting that this time The epidemic has shown the characteristics of multiple points, wide areas and frequent occurrences.

On March 18, the State Council Information Office held a press conference on the strict control of the epidemic prevention and control work.

Photo by Zhang Ni

　　A reporter asked at the meeting: This round of epidemic has the characteristics of multiple outbreaks, wide spread, and large number of confirmed cases. How to judge this round of epidemic?

What are the characteristics of the traceability of the epidemic situation?

What do you think is the reason for this round of epidemic?

　　Wang Hesheng said that this epidemic has indeed shown the characteristics of many points, wide areas and frequent occurrences.

There are four main reasons:

　　First, starting from December 2021, the global new crown pneumonia has entered the fourth wave of epidemic peaks. Now it has been 11 consecutive weeks, and the number of cases reported every week has exceeded 10 million, which is still at a high epidemic level.

Especially since the beginning of this year, the epidemic situation in our surrounding countries and regions has risen rapidly, and the "pressure difference" between the epidemic level in our country and my country has continued to increase.

From January to February this year, the number of infected people imported per day averaged 91, much higher than 22 in 2020 and 32 in 2021.

Since March this year, the average daily number of imported infections has exceeded 200, with a maximum of more than 300 in a single day.

It can be said that the pressure of imported epidemics has increased significantly recently.

　　The second is that the Omicron variant strains that are mainly popular in the world recently, especially the BA.2 sub-branch, are more transmissible and hidden than previous virus strains, and it is indeed more difficult to detect early, resulting in the discovery of the epidemic. It has affected a certain range, and it can be said that it is more difficult to handle and control the epidemic.

　　Third, in late February this year coincided with the end of the Spring Festival holiday in my country, the beginning of the spring semester for students, and the resumption of work by enterprise workers, etc., which brought a large-scale flow of personnel, and increased gathering activities such as conference training, weddings, funerals, etc. , it can be said that it has become the "spreader" and "amplifier" of the epidemic, resulting in the rapid spread of the epidemic, even across regions.

　　Fourth, some places believe that the symptoms of the Omicron variant are mild, flu-like, slack and paralyzed, with a mentality of "resting and slowing down", lack of preparation in all aspects, and relaxed requirements for normalized prevention and control and emergency response.

　　Wang Hesheng said, "We organized experts to analyze and judge. Everyone believes that the current round of the global epidemic is a high epidemic, and it will not end in the near future. my country will continue to face epidemic prevention in many places at the same time. It can be said that the situation of prevention and control is becoming increasingly severe and complicated.”

　　"At the same time, the results of the epidemiological investigation also show that the recent local clustered epidemics in my country are caused by imported sources from abroad. After the infection of the Omicron variant, most of them are mild and asymptomatic, resulting in more hidden sources of input. The modes of transmission are more diverse. Moreover, there are multiple transmission chains in the epidemic in many places, and the source of the epidemic is also complicated, which brings huge challenges to the traceability and prevention and control work.”

　　Wang Hesheng also said that these characteristics of the current round of the epidemic require further improving the sensitivity of monitoring and early warning, improving the monitoring mechanism triggered by multiple points, and effectively improving the ability of "early detection" of the epidemic.