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Sci-tech vital to managing COVID-19: Minister

By Zhang Yangfei | chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2020-05-19 20:41

A patient's temperature is measured and showed on the 5G-enabled infrared temperature monitoring device in Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong province, on Feb 5, 2020. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Science and technology have greatly supported the prevention and control of the COVID-19 pandemic and the resumption of work and production, Wang Zhigang, China's minister of Science and Technology, said on Tuesday.

Wang told a press conference in Beijing that the novel coronavirus outbreak has put an important test to China's scientific and technological capabilities.

After the outbreak, the Ministry of Science and Technology, together with 12 other ministries and departments, set up 10 working teams and 83 emergency response projects that focus on clinical treatment, drug and vaccine research and development, testing products, virology, etiology and epidemiology, as well as building animal models, he said.

Wu Yuanbin, head of the ministry's social development bureau, said China has identified the strains of the novel coronavirus and shared the whole genome sequence of the virus with the World Health Organization, providing an important basis for scientists across the world to conduct drug, vaccine and diagnostic studies.

Chinese researchers have also studied and clarified various transmission channels of the virus, which served as a scientific basis to formulate epidemic prevention strategies, Wu said.

To respond to the urgent demand of testing, medical companies and research institutes have completed the development of nucleic acid testing reagents within two weeks and continuously worked on improving the sensitivity and availability of products.

"The technical level and performance of China's testing reagents are at the same level as those of developed countries. The testing capacity can meet the current needs," Wu added.

China has started screening batches of effective drugs very early time and sifted chloroquine, favipiravir and carrimycin as potential candidates. Chinese scientists have also conducted research on traditional Chinese medicines and developed a series of treatment plans by using convalescent plasma and stem cells that could also be adapted to different patient conditions, he said.

The scientific research teams have always put vaccine development as a top priority and adopted five technical approaches to push forward the process. By far, the first and second phase of clinical trials of the adenoviral vector vaccine have already finished and another four inactivated vaccines are currently testing clinically, he said, adding that they have also strengthened cooperation with international organizations in the course of vaccine research.

"Scientific research has played a very active role in the entire epidemic prevention and treatment process and has been widely recognized bysociety," Wu said.

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