Vice-premier says China not loosening COVID response

Residents queue for nucleic acid tests at a residential area in Xiqing district, north China's Tianjin, May 21, 2022. (LI RAN / XINHUA)

SHIJIAZHUANG / BEIJING – Chinese Vice-Premier Sun Chunlan has said the country's latest COVID-19 response protocols require better precision in delivering prevention and control measures and fixing loopholes rather than letting down the guard.

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Sun, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, made the remarks during her inspection in Hebei province from Monday to Tuesday to check the province's epidemic prevention and control measures.

Vice-Premier Sun Chunlan reiterated unswervingly adhering to the country's dynamic zero-COVID policy and emphasized rapid response to handle outbreaks in the shortest time and with minimum costs to ensure that the epidemic is under control, the economy stabilizes, and the development is secure

Sun reiterated unswervingly adhering to the country's dynamic zero-COVID policy and emphasized rapid response to handle outbreaks in the shortest time and with minimum costs to ensure that the epidemic is under control, the economy stabilizes, and the development is secure.

She praised Hebei for maintaining zero community-level infections for a relatively long period of time and asked local authorities to remain vigilant and stamp out any community-level outbreak in a timely and resolute manner. 

The Chinese mainland Tuesday reported 108 locally-transmitted confirmed COVID-19 cases, including 47 in Gansu, 21 in Guangxi, and 20 in Guangdong, the National Health Commission said Wednesday.

Altogether 827 local asymptomatic carriers were newly identified in 13 provincial-level regions on Tuesday.

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A total of 91 COVID-19 patients were discharged from hospitals after recovery on the Chinese mainland on Tuesday.

The total number of COVID-19 patients discharged from hospitals after recovery reached 221,270 on the Chinese mainland as of Tuesday.

Tuesday saw no new deaths from COVID-19, with the total death toll at 5,226.