BEIJING (Reuters) – China will cope with local COVID-19 outbreaks in a “science-based, targeted” manner to maintain the normal order of life, according to a government work report released at the open of the country’s annual meeting of parliament on Saturday.
China will stick to preventing inbound COVID infections and the domestic resurgence of the disease while continuing to refine its epidemic measures, according to the report.
The country will also step up research into coronavirus variants and their prevention and accelerate researching and developing vaccines and effective medicines against COVID, the report said.
In a separate document issued on Saturday, China’s state planner the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said the country will organise research into COVID vaccination using products based on different technologies and increase the coverage of COVID boosters.
China will further speed up the domestic research, development and approval of COVID-19 medicines in accordance with epidemic control needs, and coordinate efforts on production, storage and quality supervision.
China will also enhance cross-border trade to ensure the unimpeded trade of vaccines and materials needed to produce them, the NDRC said in the document.
(Reporting by Roxanne Liu, Albee Zhang and Ryan Woo, Editing by Christian Schmollinger)
