Yuan Rongmao, deputy to the National People's Congress and director of the standing committee of Taizhou Municipal people's Congress, proposes strengthening the country's public health emergency management system. [Photo/WeChat account: tzfb001]

Yuan Rongmao, deputy to the National People's Congress and director of the standing committee of the Taizhou Municipal people's Congress, proposed strengthening the country's public health emergency management system.

Yuan made the proposal while attending the plenary session of deputies to the National People's Congress from Zhejiang province held on May 22 in Beijing.

He quoted the government work report as saying that during the prevention and control of COVID-19, many weaknesses in China's public health emergency management system were exposed and improvements need to be made to public health systems.

Yuan said that the pandemic shed light on shortcomings in major epidemic prevention and control systems, especially emergency management systems, which need to be urgently addressed.

He suggested that a complete public health legal system should be established, and bio-safety should be included in the national security system.

According to Yuan, more infrastructure facilitating disease prevention and control should be constructed and more high-caliber public health professionals should be cultivated.

New technologies, including cloud computing and internet of things, should be utilized as much as possible in disease prevention and control, noted Yuan.

He also suggested that a mechanism to ensure funding for public health should be further improved to make it easier for poverty-stricken people to visit the doctor.