Xinhua News Agency:

Carrying out patriotic health campaigns in the new era and furthering the Healthy China Initiative are two important approaches to promoting healthy lifestyles and building a healthy China. How will you coordinate the work in these two fields? Thank you.

Lei Haichao:

Thank you, I will answer your question. Rolling out the patriotic health campaigns is a great innovation and successful practice of the Party in which the mass line is effectively applied in healthcare and disease prevention. The campaigns have actively improved people's living environments, health awareness and health condition. We will continue to carry out the campaigns, using our advantages in management capacity and the ability to mobilize people, and drawing lessons and inspirations from past practices. The patriotic health campaigns have been carried out for more than 70 years, and have always played a very important, positive role despite the changing times. Following the COVID-19 outbreak, the campaigns, in conjunction with the Healthy China Initiative, made remarkable contributions to mobilizing and organizing the public to engage in epidemic prevention and control. Going forward, we plan to proceed from the following aspects:

First, we will make comprehensive efforts to transform the living environment in urban and rural areas. We will improve environmental hygiene in urban and rural areas through intensive efforts. The focus will be on farm produce markets and small restaurants, as well as old residential areas, urban villages, urban-rural fringe areas, and back alleys. We also plan to step up efforts to improve public sanitary facilities. Yunnan province has set a good example in this regard. After the epidemic broke out, Yunnan installed washbasins in popular public places across the province, such as tourist sites, so that visitors could wash their hands more often. Such amenities have been helpful even in small remote towns. This is a good practice combined with the patriotic health campaigns. 

Second, we will promote healthy lifestyles and further improve the public's health awareness. We will expand efforts to build public's health knowledge. We will promote healthy lifestyles that call on people to follow sensible diets, do exercise, quit smoking, limit drinking, and maintain a balanced mind. We will also help people improve their abilities and knowledge regarding maintaining their health.

Third, we will explore new methods of social health management and step up the building of a healthy China. The standards and procedures for the selection of national healthy cities and towns will be optimized, along with a long-term dynamic management mechanism. The selection results of healthy cities and healthy towns can be revised after periodic review and reexamination, with underperformers being disqualified. The work related to fostering national healthy cities and towns will be enhanced to achieve sound development. Villagers committees and residents committees will make more efforts to build public health committees. So far, after two years of efforts, more than 90% of villagers committees and residents committees nationwide have set up their own public health committees, with even distribution across different provinces and regions. We will form a comprehensive system to continue to create a healthy China, healthy families, healthy campuses, healthy communities, healthy townships, healthy counties and healthy cities. As we proceed with this work, we aim to fully integrate the pursuit of good health into our policies, which is crucial to implementing the Party's strategy for promoting medical care and health in the new era.

Fourth, we will innovate our work methods and encourage public participation. The general public are the main force in furthering the patriotic health campaigns and building a healthy China. We will improve legal guarantees, public education, organization, mobilization, policy research and technical support, implement the patriotic healthy campaigns in a more scientific, systematic and thorough manner, and increase public participation to better conduct our work. Thank you.

Chen Wenjun:

Thank you to all speakers and friends from the media. Today's press conference is hereby concluded. Goodbye.

Translated and edited by Wang Yiming, Wang Qian, Gong Yingchun, Ma Yujia, Liu Jianing, Li Xiao, Zhang Rui, Liu Caiyi, Yuan Fang, Yan Bin, Zhang Junmian, Xu Kailin, Liu Sitong, Qin Qi, Liu Qiang, Xu Xiaoxuan, Li Huiru, He Shan, David Ball, Tom Arnsten, and Jay Birbeck. In case of any discrepancy between the English and Chinese texts, the Chinese version is deemed to prevail.