On October 25, Hunan Governor Mao Weiming put forward the new goal for current COVID-19 epidemic prevention and control work at an executive meeting of the provincial government. He asked to strive for the best results with the fastest speed, the shortest time, and the least cost, and ensure that areas with cases have "zero spread", areas without cases keep "zero import", and medical institutions maintain "zero hospital infections".

The meeting made arrangements to further prevent and control the epidemic. Governor Mao emphasized that departments at all levels across Hunan Province must thoroughly study and implement the spirits of President Xi Jinping’s important instructions on epidemic prevention and control, the video and telephone conference held by the State Council joint prevention and control mechanism against COVID-19, and the requirements made at the executive meeting of the CPC Hunan Provincial Committee. He called for establishing a worst-case scenario thinking and strengthening responsibility, in accordance with the fast, strict, urgent, and practical requirements, to control the epidemic as soon as possible.

The photo, taken on October 21, shows a medical worker collecting a resident’s swab sample for COVID-19 nucleic acid testing at the Xiangtian Community, Dongjing Neighborhood, Yuhua District, Changsha City.

He noted that efforts should be made to:

-Strengthen emergency response. It is necessary to strengthen work coordination, coordination and cooperation among departments, and joint regional emergency response, and strictly prevent and control imported case at various checkpoints. We must enhance centralized quarantine; immediately take centralized quarantine management and control measures for close and sub-close contacts; strictly carry out the requirements of “timely, limited time, standardized, and maximized quarantine”; and, resolutely achieve “stable, accurate, and reliable” response;

-Strengthen screening and control of personnel coming (returning) to Hunan from risk areas. We should strengthen information sharing, and assign health codes in advance to people entering Hunan from medium- or high-risk areas. For time or space accompanying ones and those residing in key areas, timely screening and control must be in place, and results of information push, community-based screening, and personnel management and control must be “cleared and notified every day”. For passengers on flights entering Hunan from the provinces involved in the epidemic, a 48-hour nucleic acid test certificate inspection will be initiated. For those who cannot provide a nucleic acid test certificate, samples will be collected and tested locally and information registered;

-Strengthen the epidemic prevention and control of large-scale conferences and activities. We must make a centralized screening for the large-scale events to be held in the near future; implement the requirements of “one activity with one specific plan and one special work team”; adhere to the principle of non-essential, non-organization; and, clearly set the requirements: all personnel from medium or high-risk areas are not allowed to participate;

The photo, taken on October 22, shows residents receiving COVID-19 booster shots at a community health care center in Wenyuan Neighborhood, Tianxin District, Changsha City. Hunan Province has recently begun to offer a third dose of COVID-19 vaccine to people aged over 18 who have already been fully vaccinated with two doses of inactivated vaccines for at least six months, in a bid to further improve the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccination and strengthen the immune barrier.

-Strengthen vaccination and medical treatment. According to the unified deployment of the central government, it is necessary to realize the necessary and safe vaccination, and build an immune barrier. In particular, it is necessary to do well in reinoculation and strengthening immunization for adolescents over 12 years old, and vaccination for children aged 3-11. In addition, it is necessary to improve nucleic acid detection capabilities and detection efficiency, compact the sentinel role of medical institutions, and maintain the bottom line of hospital infection; and,

-Strengthen the implementation of responsibilities. We should always operate the emergency command system efficiently, and implement special work team operation,centralized administrative operations, and 24-hour leadership on emergency duty. It is necessary to implement and consolidate the "four-party responsibilities" of local territorial responsibilities, industrial department supervisors' responsibilities, enterprises and institutions' main responsibilities, and personal protection responsibilities. The main responsible comrades must be at the forefront of the command and coordinate scheduling. It is necessary to improve various prevention and control measures; strictly implement normalized epidemic prevention and control measures; effectively strengthen the control of key areas, places, populations, and links; and, take strict prevention and control measures at venues with gathering of people such as train stations, bus stops, ferry ports, and airports. We must strengthen material security and make more efforts to supervision and inspection.

Hunan will continue without let-up to prevent and control the epidemic, and strive to achieve the best results with its utmost efforts to create a stable, safe, and sound environment for the decisive battle in the fourth quarter and throughout the year.

This article is from Hunan Provincial Government www.enghunan.gov.cn.

Translator: Yu Jiangjiang

Chinese source: hunan.gov.cn