21st Century Business Herald:

The COVID-19 pandemic has been going on for more than two years now. We have seen that some countries have begun to lift the lockdowns amid the still raging pandemic and gradually relax control measures. Some places have been fully open without any restrictions. So I want to know, what will China's pandemic prevention and control strategies and measures be in the next step? Thank you.

Xiang Dong:

Thank you for your question. I have noticed that people have paid great attention to this issue in several recent press conferences. In the face of the pandemic of the century, the Chinese government insists on putting people first and putting life first, insists on preventing imports from abroad and preventing rebounds from within, insists on scientific precision and dynamic zero-case policies, and quickly handled and resolved many clustered cases in local areas. The Chinese government has maintained its dominant position in global pandemic prevention and control, creating conditions for economic and social development. At the same time, it should be noted that there are still many uncertainties and variables in the current global pandemic development trend, which brings significant challenges to China's prevention and control. Next, we will continue to adhere to external defense against imported cases and internal defense against rebounds, scientifically and accurately handle clustered cases, protect people's lives and health, and minimize the impact on people's everyday work and life. We will focus our work on the following four areas:

The first is to strictly prevent the import of the pandemic. More than 40 sporadic cases and clustered outbreaks occurred in China in the past two years. After gene sequencing analysis and epidemiological investigation, they were all caused by overseas imports. Therefore, the prevention and control of port cities should be the top priority, and the common prevention and control efforts on "people, objects, and environment" should be strengthened. We must guard the national gate of pandemic prevention and control and resolutely prevent large-scale import and spread.

The second is the precise implementation of prevention and control measures. In response to the problems of prevention and control in some localities, such as one-policy-fits-all and taking excessive policy steps, all localities are required to establish a special working mechanism for reporting, verifying, and correcting relevant problems. In addition, all localities are required to strictly implement the "three don'ts." Don't break through the existing regulations on pandemic prevention and control to lock down cities and districts; don't interrupt public transportation unnecessarily or without approval; don't arbitrarily increase the service industry's pandemic prevention and control measures. We must firmly prevent the two trends of "relaxing prevention and control" and "excessive prevention and control."

The third is to continue to promote the vaccination work. As I mentioned just now, as of the end of last year, China's full-course vaccination rate exceeded 85%, and by the end of February this year, it had exceeded 87%. Therefore, it is necessary to promote sequential immunization and booster vaccination to further improve the effect of immunization.

The fourth is to strengthen scientific research breakthroughs on pandemic prevention and control. We will actively promote the research and prevention of COVID-19 variants, increase the development of vaccine adaptability and specific therapeutic drugs, and strive to find a sharp weapon to control the pandemic as soon as possible.

Thank you.