With COVID preparedness, China poised for safe, sound Spring Festival holiday

ENHANCING GRASSROOTS AND RURAL RESPONSE

Community-level and rural clinics are gearing up their COVID response measures as the Spring Festival travel rush is in full swing.

Guo Yanhong said that 98.8 percent of township-level clinics and community health centers across the country have set up fever clinics, which are required to maintain normal operations during the holidays.

Chinese health authorities have also provided community-level medical facilities with the necessary equipment. Jiao Yahui, head of the Bureau of Medical Administration under the NHC, said that 1.17 million finger-clip oximeters have been distributed to village clinics across the country.

As of Thursday, community-level medical institutions in China have been equipped with nearly 2.48 million finger-clip oximeters and 191,000 oxygen generators.

Moreover, 31 provinces and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps have established a special contact system to reach key groups in a timely manner and address their needs, as efforts are being made to distribute more medical supplies to rural areas and send more medical personnel to communities, said Mao Dezhi, deputy head of the Department of Rural Cooperative Economy under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.