Medical workers and a volunteer send medicines to a villager at Xingnong Village of Chishui, southwest China's Guizhou Province, Dec. 28, 2022. (Photo by Wang Changyu/Xinhua)
BEIJING, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- Life is returning to normal and mobility is rebounding as China's COVID-19 response has entered a new phase.
However, some Western media ignore the facts, choosing instead to apply double standard and even spread misinformation, while making unwarranted accusations against China's epidemic fight, confusing the public and misleading the world as a consequence. However, in the face of facts and data, these lies are evident and untenable.
A foreign media report alleged that there would be a "dark COVID winter" for Chinese villagers. The truth is: China has made rural areas a focal point in the country's current COVID response, boosting medical capacities and providing timely support.
The country's 23,000 county-level medical institutions, 35,000 township hospitals and 599,000 village clinics have formed a closely collaborative and efficient health protection system so that rural patients can enjoy tiered, timely and convenient medical services.
Village doctor Yang Pengcheng weighs traditional Chinese medicine in Baoding, north China's Hebei Province, Dec. 30, 2022. (Xinhua)
"At present, medicines for fever and cough relief have been prepared, which can meet the needs of the whole village for two months," said Fu Xiangpeng, a doctor from the mountainous Liguanying Village in Zhenxiong County, southwest China's Yunnan Province. "People with mild symptoms can go to village clinics to get drugs, and medicine will be sent to the elderly people with difficulties."
Drug supply must be ensured in rural areas and cover the Spring Festival travel rush period or even longer, and more importantly, severe cases should be transferred to at least county-level hospitals, said Jiao Yahui, head of the Bureau of Medical Administration under the National Health Commission.
Jiao said that counties and towns had been ordered to prepare standby vehicles to transport severe patients as quickly as possible. Internet hospitals and roving medical teams have also ramped up rural medical capacity. ■
