Meeting calls for measures to help key medical materials firms solve problems

A meeting chaired by Premier Li Keqiang on Monday stressed the need to offer incentives in fiscal, tax, financial and government procurement policies to producers of protective clothing and surgical masks to boost production capacity and curb the novel coronavirus pneumonia outbreak.

The meeting of the leading group of the Communist Party of China Central Committee on coping with NCP also required further measures to help key medical materials businesses solve difficulties in raw materials and manpower in order to further boost production.

Businesses will be encouraged to adopt new techniques, expand their production capacity and switch their production in order to boost the output of protective clothing, according to a statement released after the meeting.

To scale up the supply of surgical masks, businesses will receive support in increasing their supplies of raw materials and production equipment, the statement said.

Further steps will be taken to meet demand from medical workers on the front line and in key areas such as Hubei province and Wuhan, the provincial capital, which is the epicenter of the outbreak, it said.

The country has so far sent close to 20,000 healthcare workers to provide medical treatment in Wuhan and other areas in Hubei, the statement said, adding that some provincial areas will continue to send medical teams to Wuhan.

The central government will organize 19 provincial areas to continue to send medical teams to reinforce the healthcare system in cities in Hubei other than Wuhan.

The meeting called for accelerated steps to roll out policies to improve the working conditions of medical staff on the front line, with more concrete measures to safeguard their mental and physical health and offer support to their families.

It also stressed the importance of combining scientific research, clinical procedures and epidemic control and prevention efforts.

Researchers will be encouraged to focus on clinical treatment, research and development of pharmaceuticals and vaccines, testing methods and products and the source of NCP and its transmission channels, the statement said.

More work will be done to explore new functions of drugs already developed, the R&D of new drugs and innovation in treatment technologies, with efforts to summarize the therapies for the more than 3,000 cured patients and to speed up the clinical use of drugs already proven to be effective.

The meeting called for the State Council mechanism for the coordinated prevention and control of NCP to offer timely solutions to prominent problems during epidemic control and prevention.

Problems found in blocking logistics and hindering the resumption of work must be rectified, and the supply of necessities such as foodstuffs must be ensured, the statement said.