Beijing, April 26th (Reporter Yang Yanfan) The the State Council Joint Defense and Control Mechanism held a press conference on April 26th. Mi Feng, spokesperson of the National Health and Wellness Commission and deputy director of the Propaganda Department, said that with the approach of the May 1 holiday, the flow of personnel has increased. It is necessary to implement prevention and control measures in accordance with the requirements of "Class B and B Management", continuously strengthen monitoring and early warning, closely track the epidemic situation and virus variation at home and abroad, and strengthen the prevention and control of normalized epidemic situations in key institutions and places to facilitate people’s safe and convenient travel, healthy and peaceful holidays.
"Recently, the national epidemic prevention and control situation has been generally stable, and the epidemic situation in various places has been sporadic, and there are signs of a slight increase in epidemic situations in some areas." He Qinghua, a first-class inspector of the Department of Infectious Disease Prevention and Control of the National Bureau for Disease Control and Prevention, said that the national fever clinic monitoring data showed that the national epidemic situation was generally in a low-level fluctuation state, especially in early April, when the epidemic situation fell to the lowest level since December 2022. After mid-April, the number and proportion of positive cases in a single day showed a slight upward trend.
He Qinghua said that experts believe that with the passage of time and the reduction of the level of immune protection of some people in China, the epidemic situation in some areas has started to rise slowly recently, and the infected people are mainly concentrated in three types of people: one is the uninfected people, the other is the people whose immune level has dropped, and the third is the people with immunodeficiency. On the whole, experts believe that there is little possibility of a large-scale epidemic in the country in the short term.
At present, Omicron mutant XBB.1.16 has been imported into China. What is the transmissibility and pathogenicity of this mutant? Chen Cao, a researcher at the Institute of Virology, China CDC, said that on the whole, local cases are still dominated by BA.5.2 and BF.7 and their branches, while XBB and its branches are growing rapidly. Recently, XBB mutants have been dominant in imported cases, and the proportion of XBB mutants in local cases has increased significantly, from 1.5% in early March to 18% in April 10-19. WHO believes that the current evidence shows that the global epidemic risk of XBB.1.16 is lower than that of XBB.1.5 and other prevalent variants. Although it has been observed that XBB.1.16 has certain transmission advantages and immune escape ability equivalent to XBB.1.5 in different countries, including the population in countries where XBB.1.5 is the main epidemic strain, there are no reports of serious hospitalization and death increase caused by XBB.1.16 infection.
“‘ May Day ’ The large-scale movement of holiday personnel may increase the risk of epidemic spread, but it is unlikely to cause large-scale epidemic spread. " He Qinghua suggested that the public should strengthen self-health monitoring during travel or travel and pay close attention to the epidemic situation of infectious diseases in the destination. During the journey, do a good job of personal self-protection and maintain good hygiene habits.
Guo Yanhong, director of the Medical Emergency Department of the National Health and Wellness Commission, said that during the "May 1" holiday, it is necessary to ensure people’s medical treatment and further strengthen the monitoring and analysis of the epidemic situation. Preparations for fever clinics, treatment beds, medicines and equipment will be strengthened, and the training of medical personnel and consultation visits of experts will be strengthened.
Han Jinghua, deputy director of the Transportation Services Department of the Ministry of Transport, said that it is expected that the business passenger traffic and self-driving trips will hit a new high in the May 1 holiday since 2020. The transportation department will dynamically update and timely release road network operation information such as congested and slow-moving sections through multiple channels, formulate plans for unblocking and diverting bypass for key sections, and guide self-driving personnel to reasonably choose travel time and travel routes.
Li Xiaoyong, deputy director of the Market Management Department of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, said that in order to prevent and control the epidemic situation during the May 1 holiday, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism instructed A-level tourist attractions to strictly implement the requirements of "limited quota, reservation and peak shifting", reasonably control the upper limit of tourist reception, strengthen the management of key nodes such as entrances and exits, key tourist spots and indoor performance venues, improve the guidance system, optimize the setting of tour routes, and prevent large-scale and long-term crowd gathering.