China holds news conference on COVID measures Transcript

… means protecting your family. Today we will focus on optimization and operationalization of prevention control measures. We’ve invited experts and leaders responsible in different departments to take your question. Now the floor is open for questions. Please identify yourself before you ask questions.

With the people stating we’ve noted in the optimized measures, it has been emphasizing on the treatment provided to people at risk classified and tiered management and treatment. What are the roles played by the health institutions in providing such health services?

I’d like to invite Madam [inaudible 00:00:52] to take the question.

Thank you for your question. We are all very much interested to learn about the classified and tiered management of coronavirus positive patients. We know omicron variant transmits rapidly with a strong transmissibility and always in stealth form. But with the evolution of the virus, most of the infected mild cases are symptomatic cases. The percentage of a severe cases caused by omicron has been relatively low. To have better coordination and utilization of health resources, our focus is to provide effective treatment to the severe cases and critical cases. That’s why we provide tiered and classified treatment for the positive patients. For the mild and asymptomatic cases without underlying diseases or with stable progression of underlying diseases, people as such can have a home based quarantine. Today we’ve issued guidelines on the care provided to home quarantine COVID-19 positive patients.

(02:32)
In which we’ve provided guiding opinions for the care and management of people on home quarantine. They are advised to have a targeted treatment, but we’d like to mention that for asymptomatic cases, no treatment is needed. They only have to conduct the self-monitoring. And for those who have a fever or coughs, they need to have a targeted treatment. When they’re in need, they can contact community health institutions or they can seek medical advice via internet medicine. At the same time, since most of the coronavirus positive patients can have home based care and treatment, we require health institutions to disseminate information of their hotlines for elderly living in solitude, patients with underlying diseases, pregnant women or patients living on hemodialysis. The health institutions at the grassroots level should set up a list of these special population to provide better services. Hospitals can provide televised medicine and medical services to these people.

(03:53)
Health professionals can also visit these patients. We also require health institutions at all levels, in particular community health institutions, to be stocked with medicines and antigen testing reagents to meet the needs of patients on home quarantine. Second, for patients in critical conditions or who are at the risk of developing into critical conditions, they must be admitted into designated hospitals. To ensure timely and effective treatment, we require the localities to designate well conditioned hospitals with the general capacity to be designated hospitals and equip the hospitals with sufficient equipment and professionals to ensure good quality health services. We require these designated hospitals to further improve their treatment capacity so as to provide quality services to the patients. Third, for patients who have underlying diseases and who have come to general hospitals or specialized hospitals to seek medical services for the treatment of their underlying diseases. However, during this process, it is possible that they may be tested positive for coronavirus.

(05:21)
We require general hospitals and specialized hospitals to set up buffer zones in the outpatient segment, hospitalized walls and emergency rooms in a bid to provide medical services to the patients to deal with their underlying diseases. We’d like to emphasize in particular autumn and winter is the season of influenza and respiratory tract infections. And most of these diseases will have a fever as a symptom. Therefore, we require all health institutions, eligible health institutions to set up fever clinics. Their addresses, hotline information and service information must be disseminated to facilitate the access of the general public. Fever clinics must be offer enough room, equipped with health professionals and shouldn’t be arbitrarily suspended in their services. The diagnosis and treatment work must be stably provided to safeguard the general public’s health.

Thank you. Next question.

With [inaudible 00:06:45] News Agency. We’ve noticed that the optimized measure requires further narrowing of the NAT testing scope and reducing of the frequency. What are the specific requirements?

I’d like to invite Mr. [inaudible 00:07:00] to take the question.

Thank you for your question. The optimization measures requires further optimization of NAT testing with an emphasis that the NAT testing should be focused on regions and people at higher risk. The optimization is in the following areas. First, scraping blanket NAT testing based on jurisdiction. Second, apart from nursing homes, health institutions, kindergartens, primary and secondary schools. No other public places needs NAT negative testing certificate as the entry requirement. Third, scraping NAT negative testing certificate or health digital codes for the movement for people who are on move across different regions. And scrapping arrival testing. Fourth, antigen testing is allowed in light of the specific needs. And the fourth, for people working at high risk, they are NAT testing should also follow the 20 point. And these people at high risk refer to people working at the highly risky posts. We’ve mentioned these on many occasions. NAT testing is required only for these people working on highly risky posts. For those who are dealing with inbound travelers, imported goods or environment related to these occasions. People working at designated health institutions or the fever clinics of general health institutions, in supermarkets, fast food delivery, and those people who are working in crowded public places. Thank you.

Thank you. Please continue.

Thank you. From CCTV New Media. The senior over 80 are usually physically challenged or all with multiple chronic diseases. They do not really go to the very crowded places. Why do they still need to be vaccinated, especially for those senior who are incapacitated or semi incapacitated? What kind of service or convenience can be provided for to such senior?

Currently, the COVID-19 control is still quite challenging. The vaccination is still having a very good effect in the prevention of severe diseases and fatality. One being infected, the senior is prone to be developed into severe, critically severe or even death cases. So they would be the beneficiary from vaccination. Some incapacitated or semi incapacitated senior, indeed, they stay at home for most of the time. However, they might be accompanied by their relatives or they might be prone to infection when their relatives are visiting them, so leading to the possibility of severe or fatality.

(10:25)
So there’s a necessity for them to be vaccinated. While taking into consideration that these scenarios are usually physically challenged, to provide convenience we have adopted the previous best practices. For example, to use the mobility vaccination cars and to have a special senior vaccination track and green track designated to the seniors. While at the same time, we have also choose some experienced medical staff to form some special task forces so that they would be able to provide a door-to-door vaccination services to the senior who are either incapacitated or semi-incapacitated so that they do not need to go out and they can be vaccinated in such a manner.

So after the issuance of the new measures, how can we better coordinate the normal diagnosis and treatment with that after the treatment of the COVID-19 patient? That is to say, while, we are treating the COVID-19 patient, it shouldn’t unduly influence the general treatment order.

As you know that the access to the medical services is the need of the mass public. That is why we need to strike a balance between the treatment of the COVID patients with that of the normal treatment. We have done the work in the following areas. The first one is the strengthening of the construction and the coordination of the medical resources. We have given guidance of the preparedness of the paths of all the localities so as to expand the medical resources. Especially we have come out with a tiered characterized and classification protocol so that they would have a differentiated hospitalization standards for the infected based on their seriousness of the symptoms.

(12:39)
So such a characterized treatment would be able to maintain the normal operation of the medical institution. Secondly, we need to do a scientific and targeted COVID-19 response. We cannot just close down the medical institutions, especially for the Fever Clinics, emergency clinic, operation room. Also including the dialysis, ICUs, the delivery rooms, including such very important departments within the medical institutions cannot be easily suspended to ensure the access to the patients needs. And especially for those areas which might be infected by the pandemic, such a fast lockdown and fast lifting approach shall be adopted to resume to the normal operation.

(13:31)
And thirdly, we need to strengthen the openness of the information and the communication of the information. For example, the operations status of the medical institutions, so should be communicated to the public on a timely manner, including the telephone and the official website should be released on a timely manner to enable the mass public to gain access to such information. Fourthly, we need to implement a larger based

… [inaudible 00:14:01] management, especially for those risk areas. So for example, senior with underlying diseases, pregnant women and those patients which needs the [inaudible 00:23:35] dialysis to have their files to be kept, so as to maintain that such access to their medical needs should be kept unobstructed. And we would also require the medical institutions to strictly implement the first diagnosis accountability system and the critical and severe care mechanism. There is no reason to refuse to accept the patients. While at the same time, we shall give the [inaudible 00:14:50] to the telematics to make sure that the pre-hospitalization first aid resources can be expanded to make sure that the 120 hotline and other channels are unobstructed and it is always available to the mass public.

We have noted that for those who are asymptomatic and also those who are with mild symptoms, then there’s no need for them to be having a mass quarantine. But of course, people are still worrying that they might be easily infected by the positive cases living in the neighborhood. And how can we reduce such types of worries? Is there a possibility that if they are under a home quarantine, there is expansion of the transmissibility of the virus, whether the risk is controllable?

And actually, the pathogenicity of the Omicron is obviously attenuated. So that is why we would be able to reduce the severe cases and the fatalists to a very large extent. While because of the attenuated pathogenicity, we can be more complacent and to be more relaxed regarding such infection of the COVID-19. There is no need to be nervous or even panic. So the home quarantine is not really relaxation of our treatment. It is for a better targeted tiered treatment and diagnosis, so as to cut off the transmission while at the same time, to make sure that the very limited medical resources would be focused on the treatment of the severe cases.

(16:44)
So on the one hand, we need to avoid the possibility of the transmission. While secondly, we also make sure that such severe cases can be transferred to the hospital for a timely treatment. And for those who are under a home quarantine needs to be better protected and to reduce the contact as much as possible. Certain distance should be kept within the positive cases with that of its family members. And firstly, the home should be ventilated because a good ventilation can be of vital of reducing the transmissibility of such respiratory diseases. And for the bathroom, if the patient can use it alone and then that is the best approach.

(17:31)
If it is a shared bathroom, then after the usage, disinfection should be conducted in a thorough way. While hand hygiene and the disinfection of the environment while cooking, eating, and other processes, hand hygiene should be observed at all times. And while sneezing or coughing, tissue should be used to cover the mouth and nose and it should be disposed to the dustbin can with the lid, so as to reduce the possibility for further transmission. And the used tissue, masks should be kept in separate dustbin can and then it should be transferred in other places and it should be removed. And the personal items should also be separated from those of the family members, because the personal items also carry the risk of transmission. All in all, through a series of personal protection measures and some physical isolation to reduce the possibility of transmission.

Within the financial channel of CRM, the latest requirement optimization measures require us to scientifically and precisely [inaudible 00:19:09] the red zones and scrap the provisional lockdown. Does it mean that even the buildings or the units with the positive testing result in mixed sample tube don’t need lockdown?

Thank you for your question. If the positive testing result in the mixed sample tube is identified, the competent department will give notification to the testing personnel to implement the quarantine measures where the situation is identified. So for people who are living in the same building or unit with the person whose NAAT testing result has been positive in the mixed tube, sample tube, doesn’t have to be put on lockdown. Then there will be the double check. If the result is negative, then the lockdown must be removed. If the double check result is positive, then the quarantine management measures will be further implemented with a follow on epidemiological survey and risk analysis.

With the China Youth Daily. Apart from nursing homes, the orphanage, health institutions, kindergartens, primary schools and secondary schools, other public places do not require NAAT negative testing certificate or health digital barcodes. What are other special venues? What are the considerations of providing the results?

Mr. [inaudible 00:20:59] is taking your question.

Thank you for your question. With a substantial reduction of pathogenicity of Omicron, there is a high risk of senior citizens and those with underlying diseases developing to severe cases, in particular those living in nursing homes or orphanage., And also in crowded public places such as health institutions, kindergartens, primary and secondary school students. Once there is any source of infection, it can easily trigger cluster cases. That’s why we require such places ask for NAAT testing results for the entry.

(21:40)
And for those who are moving across different regions, taking public transportation vehicles, they don’t need to show NAAT testing result or go through arrival test for their entry or mobility. But they are advised to have good personal protection, including the mask mandate and avoid social crowding. The new 10 points also put forward that large enterprises can have their own prevention control protocol, localities. In light of their individual situation, can contextualize their prevention control measures. For example, important enterprises, big enterprises and industrial parks can have other contextualized strategies in prevention control. You said no NAAT testing result, no health barcode certificate is needed for other places. And this is based on our practices and experiences accumulated from the past three years.

With [foreign language 00:22:59]. We have been advocating vaccination for the elderly. The State Council Interagency Task Force on this press conference has advocated on many [inaudible 00:23:11] on the elder vaccination. However, admittedly, the vaccination rate of the seniors are still low. What will be the measures adopted to remove their concerns and promote vaccination?

I’d like to invite Mr. [inaudible 00:23:27] to take the question.

Thank you for your question. We’ve noticed that there’s a [inaudible 00:23:32] of seniors who haven’t been vaccinated. We’ve been serving into the issue based on the situation available to us. There are major three concerns of the senior citizens. First, fear of vaccination. Since most elderly have underlying diseases, they are kind of afraid that they may be prone to adverse events. Second, elderlies think they don’t have a large [inaudible 00:24:10] mobility, therefore, they have a lower risk of infection. They don’t think it’s necessary for them to get vaccinated.

(24:16)
And third, there are elder citizens who have difficulties in their mobility or accessing transportation [inaudible 00:24:27]. According to research results, senior citizens over 65, 75, and 85-years-old compared with the younger population group, the chronic, the severe case risk is five-fold, seven-fold, nine-fold respectively. And the risk for fatality is 90-fold, 220-fold, and 570-fold respectively when compared with younger population. For the elderly above 80-years-old without a single dose of vaccination, this fatality rate is 14.7%. With one dose of vaccination, the fatality risk is reduced to 7.16%. With three doses of vaccination, the fatality risk is reduced to 1.5%. So compared with the no vaccination, those with three doses of vaccination, fatality risk has seen a decrease of 9.3-fold. In light of the fear from the senior citizens, we require the health professionals to have serious evaluation of their health physique, ensure the vaccination venues have health equipment, rescue equipment, and health professionals to pay special attention to suspected ADEs. To have a good monitoring and rapid response, we provide infographics to the elder citizens to educate them on the necessity, safety and efficacy of vaccines. We should mobilize the entire society to mobilize the elder citizens to be vaccinated in light of the specific difficulties. We should optimize the vaccination services, refine facilitation convenience measures, so there is no last mile difficulty for the elders to get vaccinated. We hope our vaccination policy can be affectionate to the elderly. We also hope the elder citizens can proactively get vaccinated so that they will be at the helm of their own health.

Next question, please.

With [inaudible 00:26:55]. We know health professionals have been the vanguard of fighting the pandemic. What if they are infected with the coronavirus? Will they be put on home quarantine, or treatment, or should they carry on with their work?

I’d like to invite Madam [inaudible 00:27:16] to take the question.

Thank you for your question. I’d like to thank you in particular for your care [inaudible 00:27:21] provided to health professionals. Yesterday in the newly released 10 new points, we’ve put forward importance of scientific classified treatment of COVID-19 positive patients. Mild cases and asymptomatic cases are advised to have a home quarantine. They can also volunteer to go to the centralized quarantine facilities. Health professionals are a very special group. Each day, they receive a large number of patients. They are at the highest risk of getting infected and they have onerous working burden.

– then they are avoidably exposed to risks. Once health professionals are infected with coronavirus, the new 10 points should also be followed through. However, to minimize the risk of their exposure, we put forward the following requirements on the management of health institutions. First, we must improve the management of places at risk, with a higher risk of professional exposure, fever clinics, ER wards. The working procedures and protocols should be optimized and we must equip the places with sufficient health professionals. Health professionals are advised to have scientific personal protection by wearing PPEs to minimize the risk of exposure.

(28:56)
While at the same time the medical institutions should also strengthen the stockpiling and the dispatching of the medical resources so as to satisfy the needs of the clinical and diagnosis and treatment. And secondly, we have been repetitively asked for the implementation of the measures to take care of the medical staff so that the health monitoring and the vaccination of the medical staff so can be well conducted. And also based on the pandemic trends as well as the dynamics of the clinical treatment, we can dynamically optimize and adjust so the grouping of the medical staff. So as we have more rational allocation of the medical resources to make sure that it would be able to satisfy the clinical treatment needs because of the professional exposure, it wouldn’t unduly drag down the efficiencies of the operation.

(29:57)
And thirdly, medical institutions has its special feeders with high mobility and large group of the vulnerables based on the new ten measures when entering into the medical institutions. So 48 hours of the AT testing should be checked. We would require that the patient should have done such NAT test or antigen test [inaudible 00:30:22] in advance. All those patients and those accompany the patients should wear the masks in a proper way. And the treatment is always the priority and the scientific protective measures so should be conducted to make sure that the treatment and diagnosis for the patient can be conducted in an orderly manner.

From China Met. The new optimized measures made sure that for those close contact who are well conditioned to have a home quarantine, they can also choose to have a mass quarantine on a voluntary basis. So when the mass public are making such choices, what are the factors to be taken into consideration?

Actually the close contact, if they choose to have a home quarantine, they should have the following conditions. So first of all, it is preferable they have a separate room with good ventilation. And secondly, if they share the same bathroom, then the bathroom should be disinfected in a proper manner. And thirdly, for those who are at a home quarantine, if he is alone, then he should be able to take care of himself. And fourthly, those who are at home quarantine should be confined at it’s home entirely and refuse all kinds of visits.

(32:02)
So it is suggested that the close contact can have a home quarantine. And we would also like to stress that during the home quarantine processes, if there are senior and infants who should be taken care of, then the personal protection should be well taken care of to avoid the possible transmission risks. Wearing the mask and hand hygiene are the priority and the antigen test should be conducted on a daily basis. If it is turns to be positive, it shall be reported to the community or the family doctor. And once being detected as positive, the self-monitoring should be conducted. Well of course the self-monitoring on the symptoms, including whether there is fever, cough, shortness of breath, such symptoms.

(32:52)
So once such symptoms have been triggered or being found, it shall be reported to the community. And also the senior, the pregnant woman, infants and those who have underlying diseases like cardiovascular diseases while under home quarantine, if they have special needs in medication or treatment, they should on a timely manner file to the community. Once in case of emergencies are timely, treatment and access to the medical institutions should be done on a timely manner.

Southern Daily. And currently, once there is one positive case detected, the whole building should be locked down. So what are the conditions for having a lockdown? And sometimes the same building have different capacities. So sometimes one unit may accommodate several hundreds of household. Under such circumstances, how are we going to deal with it? And also how can we implement the fast lockdown, faster removal approaches? So what are the timeline for the so called faster removal?

If there’s only one positive case and there is a low risk of transmission in the place of the living and the place of work and after the assessment, there is no community transmission risk, so no high risk zone need to be delineated. And you have mentioned that there is a possibility that in the same unit it may accommodate several hundreds of households, based on the epidemiological investigation and the assessment according to the new ten measures, only those highly risk exposed floor or household should be zoned as high risks.

(34:52)
And for those high risk areas, if within five days there are no new infections, timely lifting of the measures can be conducted to avoid a prolonged lockdown. And also for the new measures, especially for the asymptomatic and those mild cases as well as the close contact of such cases are also under home observation. And for those under the high risk zoning areas, for those newly detected new infections, if they are the personnel living with the positive cases or the close contact and those who live with the close contact of the positive cases, after the assessment that they have no community transmission risk at all, it wouldn’t unduly influence the lifting time of such measures of the high risk areas. That is to say that the removal of such measures can be also conducted accordingly.

[inaudible 00:36:15] So the nursing home and welfare houses are the congregated areas for the seniors and the infants and children and especially such special groups, if there is any infections, seniors are the high risk area of diseases. So how we going to deal with it if there are infections in this nursing homes and the welfare houses?

Indeed, as you have mentioned, that the senior and the children are the [inaudible 00:36:54] control and the seniors are the high risk area of the COVID severe cases. So when there are pandemics in the community, avoidably the nursing home and the welfare houses are to be influenced. So that is why in the new measures that NAT negative testing health code still need to be checked while accessing to such facilities like nursing homes and welfare houses. Such measures can effectively reduce the possibilities of bringing the virus within such institutions.

(37:31)
We also require that for such nursing homes and welfare houses, so they should have made their preparedness plans including the emergency contingency plans, including the ventilation and the hygiene. And we should also help and remind the seniors and the children to do a better hand hygiene. And the staffs working in such institutions should wear the masks at all times to reduce the possibilities of the transmission to minimize such risks. And we should also remind that the seniors shouldn’t have frequent visit to each other so as to reduce the congregation and the gathering of the people so as to better prepare and to prevent the outbreak of the pandemic.

(38:28)
Once there is infection in these institutions, they should respond rapidly by having preparation and preparedness plan by setting up different zones. The infected seniors should be separated from the not affected ones. They should be attended by a fixed [inaudible 00:38:53] so as to minimize the potential impact. In many of nursing homes, there are the medical clinics. In some nursing homes they are also in affiliation with health institutions. There should be evaluation over the infected seniors. For those who are mild cases or asymptomatic cases, they can continue their care treatment, targeted treatment in the nursing homes.

(39:26)
And for the senior citizens who are in critical stages with a combination of underlying diseases, they should be transferred to hospitals for further treatment. In how things in the nursing homes, the medical clinics should be equipped with health professionals when it is necessary. For the large scale nursing homes, we require the stationing of ambulances so as to timely transfer the senior citizens with critical conditions. Finally, we’d like to emphasize, again, vaccination can effectively reduce the risk of critical cases or fatality. We advise the eligible elder citizens without contraindications advised to be get vaccinated as quickly as possible. Thank you.

21st Century Economic News. When there is discomfort, when should a person be on home quarantine, and when should the person go to seek medical advices in health institutions? I like to invite Mr [inaudible 00:41:00] to take the question.

Thank you for your question. Home quarantine needs some preconditions. There should be a separate and independent room for the infected. If in the same home there are other people with underlying diseases or elderly, it is not suitable for the infected to have the home based quarantine. Most of the mild cases or symptomatic cases don’t have to go to the centralized facilities or health institutions, but we emphasize that there should be continuous health monitoring by taking temperatures. If there is symptom developed like fever or coughs, the positive patients are advised to have a targeted treatment or intakes. However, with this weighed, the

… on stockpiling of medicines on general medicines for the treatment of cold are good enough. You can also seek medical advice from community health workers or have some televised medical services. For Chinese herbal medicines, they may have different commodity names, but the active ingredient is the same. For example, for the Paracetamol many medicines have the active ingredient of a paracetamol, which can relieve your fever. But many commodity products have the active ingredient of a parasol. When having too much intake of it, it may lead to some adverse event. Same is true for the anti-bacteria medicines. For those who have underlying diseases while treating COVID-19, they should also carry on with the treatment of underlying diseases.

(43:05)
For the development of the following situation, we advise the coronavirus-positive patients contact their neighborhood committee or may dial 120 to be transferred to health institutions for treatment. First, if you have symptom of respiratory difficulty or shortness. Second, with medication, fever continues for over 38 degrees and over three days. Third, if you see the exacerbated situation of the underlying diseases such as the chest pain for cardiovascular disease patients. And fourth, for infants and young children, if they show symptoms of [inaudible 00:43:54], seizure, refusal of feeding, diarrhea, or vomiting with medication without any alleviation for two days and above, they should seek medical advice immediately. And for pregnant women, if they have a shortness of breath or the palpitation or the anomaly with the fetus activity, they are advised to go to hospitals.

(44:20)
In general, for home quarantine patients have a good health monitoring. And in case of anomalies, contact your community general practitioners and seek medical advisors or go to hospitals as needed.

(44:41)
With CNS, we’ve noticed that previously, some localities have adopted physical fencing, metal sheeting, and other hardcore quarantine. There have been a lot of complaints from the constituents. Are there any requirements in the new 10 points?

(45:02)
Thank you for your question. In light of the hard core quarantine complaint by the general public in the new 10 points with bid, the blockage of firefighting exit, the door of the unit or the community to ensure the general public can seek medical services and can have emergency evacuation as needed.

(45:27)
Hardcore quarantine is not precise prevention in any sense. Rather, it is dereliction of duty and neglecting the life and property and safety of the general public. For those places which do have the need to be put on lockdown, the party committee and the government of the place must have a clear knowledge of each area in the lockdown place, who are the elderly, the pregnant, the disabled, that the patients suffering from chronic diseases.

(46:02)
More importantly, we must provide sufficient services to the people put on lockdowns. Their daily necessities, their livelihood, medical services must be met. We must provide affectionate services and care to those who are on lockdown. While we put them on lockdown, we must deliver services to them, ensure their livelihood, medical needs are satisfied. The community must be paired up with health institutions to provide the services to the elderly living in solitude, the minors, the pregnant, the disabled, people with chronic diseases, provide psychological cycling to people on lockdown patients and frontline workers.

(46:48)
Open psychological assistance hotlines to provide psychological support. Once there is anyone detected with mental health problems, they must be timely transferred. Education must be provided to the general public to win their support so that we can consolidate the social fabric of defense. Thank you. In the interest of time, we’ll take two last questions.

(47:24)
With Hong Kong Magazine, with the adoption of the new 10 points, for institutions and venues with bigger density of the elderly, like nursing homes, what will be the facilitation errors to provide vaccination to the elderly? Mr. Saga is taking the question.

(47:44)
In nursing homes, we see a big density of the senior. It is also a focus of our service for vaccination. The working protocol, improving vaccination for the elderly issued by the general office of the Interagency Task Force stipulates that we must improve the vaccination for places for the elderly, including nursing homes, universities, activities centers, recreational places for the elderly. Shortly before localities are working closely with each other to adopt multi-pronged marrows in these key places and promoted the orderly vaccination of the elderly by setting up temporary vaccination booths and more bio-vaccination vehicles, set up dedicated vaccination services or providing the elderly with faster tracks.

(48:42)
Going ahead, we’ll continue with this good practices and taking stock of our experiences to continuously improve facilitation convenience matters so as to maximize the benefits of vaccination for the elderly.

From Daily Economic Daily, for those high risk position personnel and the high risk zoning personnel. We need to conduct a test according to the regulation. Can you please give us explanation? What does it mean by high-risk positions, and specifically, what are the so-called relevant regulations? According to the ninth prevention control protocol and the 20th optimization measures, so the high risk composition staff include the following personnel. So firstly, the personnel who have a direct contact with the inbound travelers, objects and environment, and also, the staff working the mass quarantine and also the medical staffs working in the designated hospitals and the fever clinic of the general medical institutions. So, they need to have a close loop management of the operation. They need to have a daily NAAT test. And the second big category of the staff, those who are highly exposed and who have frequent contact with the outside world, including the staff working in the supermarkets, fast delivery and other fast food delivery services.

(50:36)
So that is why they need to have NAAT test twice a week. And for today’s press conference, several experts have given you the introduction of the optimized measures and we will hold press conferences in the following days. I would like to declare the conclusion of today’s press conference.

(50:58)
(Silence).