China’s President Xi Jinping on Monday called for a reinforcement of health campaigns and «concrete steps» to protect the health of the population, in his first public statements since the authorities began to relax the tough restrictions imposed in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.
«The situation of prevention and control of the pandemic is facing new situations and tasks,» said the president, who stressed that «it is necessary to carry out patriotic health campaigns more precisely,» as reported by the Chinese television channel CCTV.
He called for a «massive mobilization» to strengthen awareness campaigns and «improve the lines of social defense for the prevention of epidemics» in order to «effectively protect the life and health of the population» in the Asian giant.
China’s National Health Commission announced Sunday that it will stop publishing daily coronavirus cases, at a time when the country is experiencing a surge in cases after relaxing some restrictions. Some 248 million people in China, 18 percent of the population, have tested positive for coronavirus in the first three weeks of December.
It has recently relaxed some of its measures on the grounds that cases of the new omicron variant are less severe. However, this laxity may also be motivated by public dissatisfaction with these restrictions.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
