Premier Li Keqiang chaired a meeting on March 2, requiring efforts to take different measures in various regions accordingly, strengthen care for community workers who fight the novel coronavirus epidemic at the frontline, and coordinate spring farming with epidemic prevention and control.

The Premier is a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, and also head of the leading group on novel coronavirus prevention and control.

Wang Huning, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and deputy head of the leading group, also attended the meeting.

Epidemic control is still at a crucial stage and the work shouldn’t slack off, those at the meeting said.

As the epicenter, Hubei province and Wuhan city should continue strict measures to control virus sources at the community level, improve medical treatment for infected people and release accurate information in a timely manner.

In Beijing and other megacities with high population mobility, responsibilities for different levels should be specified to avoid virus input and spread through highways, communities and ports.

The remaining regions should adjust their emergency response levels accordingly and recover normal production and life in an orderly way, while carrying out prevention measures and reducing unnecessary gathering activities, according to those at the meeting.

It also called on accelerated efforts to develop portable test kits, drugs and vaccines for the novel coronavirus.

It was pointed out at the meeting that the epidemic has been maintained at a low level outside Hubei province, but to further control the spread and prevent a cluster outbreak, more efforts should be made at the community level.

Community workers nationwide have made significant contributions to the battle against the epidemic, so they deserve more care. During the control period, governments should grant subsidies to community workers on the frontline.

Those who get injured or fall ill at work should be deemed as suffering an occupational injury in accordance with legal conditions, while those who get infected or die of the disease deserve related treatment stated in regulations.

Moreover, protective conditions should be improved for community workers. Masks and protective clothing should be distributed reasonably, and dining and places to rest should be properly arranged.

Leaders and employees of government departments and public institutions should be selected and dispatched to aid at the grassroots level, with shift rotation, so community workers can have days off. Those with high workloads for an extended time should be forced to rest, if necessary.

Repetitive task assignments from multiple superior departments should be stopped to relieve burdens at the grassroots level. Formalism is forbidden. Help should be provided to community workers experiencing difficulties.

A working guideline for spring plowing was reviewed at the meeting, which requires local governments to advance epidemic prevention and control while coordinating the timing of spring farming.

For labor-intensive sites and confined spaces, farmers can be organized to work at different hours in batches. However, limitations should not be too much for most farmlands.

It was decided at the meeting that agricultural materials enterprises should be encouraged to resume production, and their supplies should be made available for each village and each household. Management should be done well relating to wheat and rice fields to ensure a good harvest of summer grains. Prevention and control work should be improved to guard against natural disasters and pest diseases.

Hubei also should organize agricultural production in an orderly way while improving countermeasures against the epidemic.

Members of the leading group Ding Xuexiang, Huang Kunming, Cai Qi, Wang Yi, Xiao Jie and Zhao Kezhi also attended the meeting.