Authorities working to ensure medical supplies

China is making efforts to secure medical supplies and services for the public after it optimized COVID-19 prevention and control measures last week.

"Currently, our priority is to protect people's health and reduce the number of severe COVID-19 cases," said Mi Feng, spokesman of the National Health Commission, at a news conference in Beijing on Wednesday. "It's urgent that we meet people's demands for medical services."

He said that it's necessary to ensure people have access to health consultants, community clinics or online hospitals. Authorities should also improve their oversight of people most at risk of infection to make sure vulnerable groups, including the elderly, pregnant women, children and people with underlying diseases, can take advantage of effective and convenient medical services.

Zhou Jian, an official from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said at the news conference that the nation's drug manufacturers are capable of meeting people's needs, but acknowledged that some medicines are in short supply in some areas due to a surge of infections and purchases. The ministry is making every effort to help pharmaceutical companies increase their capacity to provide relief.

"We've sent work teams to these companies to help them solve problems related to logistics, water and electricity use and raw material procurement, encouraging them to race against the clock to produce medicines," he said.

Zhou said that the ministry has also helped the companies update their technologies or establish new production lines to improve throughput.

"Facing great market demand, we are letting patients, medical institutions and nursing houses get first dibs on medicines, and we are urging pharmacies to open online stores to make it more convenient for people to order," he added. "The nation has a solid pharmaceutical industry that will soon meet everyone's medical needs."

According to Mi, the NHC spokesman, the nation is planning a new vaccination campaign to encourage adults age 60 and above and other people at high risk of infection to get booster shots.