China's Ministry of Health has put local health departments on
24-hour duty over the upcoming week-long National Day holiday in
readiness for public health emergencies.
All the 32 national health emergency teams and local
counterparts will also be in a state of heightened readiness for
the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China next
month.
Health officials must be ready to handle public health
emergencies whenever necessary to minimize casualties, the ministry
said in a notice on Wednesday.
Local health departments must share public health information
with tourism, communications, railway and agriculture
departments.
The ministry ordered health authorities to strengthen
supervision of sanitation at tourist spots, restaurants, schools
and medical institutions.
Public health emergencies included major epidemics, diseases of
unknown origin, major food or occupational poisoning cases, and
other incidents that may seriously endanger public health, said the
notice.
The ministry's statistics show public health emergencies claimed
54 lives on the Chinese mainland in August with 130 incidents
recorded and 4,929 people involved.
The National Day falls on October 1 each year and was officially
prolonged to a week-long holiday in 1999. It is one of three
"golden weeks" for the economy when people are encouraged to
travel.
(Xinhua News Agency September 27, 2007)