The Chinese government announced Sunday to allocate an additional
812.6 million yuan (US$98.3 million) to improve infrastructure and
capacity of local medical institutes in a bid to prevent severe
acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) epidemic from spreading to rural
areas.
The fund was on top of another 1.55-billion-yuan special
appropriation that the Chinese government had already channeled to
the construction of nation-wide disease prevention and control
network.
Chinese Vice Premier Zeng Peiyan presided over a meeting on
accelerating the construction of infrastructures used for
preventing and treating SARS recently. According to the spirit of
the meeting and with approval of the State Council, the State
Development and Reform Commission (SDRC) decided to channel more
fund from issuing treasury bonds to the fight against SARS this
year.
The 812.6 million yuan will be earmarked for SARS control in the
most severely affected regions. The fund will be mainly used for
restructuring hospitals dedicated for SARS treatment and fever
clinic and isolation chambers at rural county-level medical
institutes, purchasing medical equipment and vehicles they
desperately need. In the same time, the fund will also be used to
construct isolation chambers and purchase relevant equipment at the
outlets of SARS-affected regions, build disposal facilities of
hazardous waste and medical sewage and purchase specialized
transport vehicles.
The SDRC said the country would complete a three-tiered nation-wide
disease control network within this year. It will also draft the
blueprint of a national medical system for sudden public health
incidents.
(Xinhua News Agency May 11, 2003)