Chinese Vice Premier Sun Chunlan, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, addressed a teleconference on the prevention and control work for the novel coronavirus that caused cases of pneumonia, in Beijing, capital of China, on Jan. 20. Making arrangement for the prevention and control work following Premier Li Keqiang’s important instructions and the deployment of the State Council, Sun called for efforts to safeguard the people's health and maintain social order.

Sun Chunlan pointed out that since the outbreak, the relevant departments and localities have conscientiously implemented the decision and deployment of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, strengthened joint prevention and control, identified the disease source in a relatively short period of time, and carried out prevention and control work in an orderly manner. At the same time, we should see that this is a new infectious disease. With the establishment of diagnostic methods, the optimization of diagnostic reagents, the expansion of surveillance, the increase in the number of reported cases, and the busy traffic during the Spring Festival Holidays, the prevention and control situation has seen new changes. It is necessary to increase prevention and control efforts to prevent the spread of the epidemic.

Pneumonia caused by the novel coronavirus has been classified as Class B infectious disease and managed as Class A infectious disease, Sun said, adding that measures including epidemic monitoring and quarantine should be carried out in accordance with the law. She demanded the city of Wuhan, where most cases have been reported, to take stricter measures to curb the virus spread in the region as well as its transmission to other places. Sun urged stepping up efforts on scientific research on the virus, calling for an early date to find effective treatment procedures and medicines with the combination of China and Western medicine. She also stressed openness and transparency of information as well as international communication and cooperation.