President Xi urges protection, care for medical workers in epidemic fight

President Xi Jinping inspects the center for disease control and prevention of Chaoyang District in Beijing, on Feb. 10, 2020. (Xinhua/Liu Bin)

BEIJING, Feb. 19 (Xinhua) -- President Xi Jinping has called for great attention to the protection and care for medical workers to make sure they are healthy and stay focused on winning the battle against the outbreak of novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks in a recent instruction on protecting the medics participating in the COVID-19 prevention and control.

Medical workers check patients' information at Jiangxia temporary hospital that mainly adopt Traditional Chinese medicines (TCM) to treat the patients in Wuhan, Feb. 14, 2020. (Xinhua/Cheng Min)

The following are highlights of Xi's instruction:

-- Medical workers are the backbone force in defeating the epidemic, and it must be ensured that they get full support.

-- More efforts are needed to relieve the stress on medical workers, and provide them with adequate daily necessities, ensure they have necessary rest, and get encouragement.

-- It must be ensured that medical teams in Hubei and Wuhan can carry out their work in a safe, orderly, coordinated, effective and swift manner.

Medical workers inject medicine for Li Zuofan(R) at an intensive care ward of the novel coronavirus infection cases at a branch of Tongji Hospital in Wuhan, Feb. 18, 2020. (Xinhua/Wang Yuguo)

XI'S PARTICULAR CONCERN

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, medical workers have worked day and night on the frontline. Some were infected or even sacrificed their lives while saving lives.

President Xi is particularly concerned about their wellbeing.

-- On Jan. 25, the first day of the lunar New Year, he expressed sincere gratitude to the medical workers at a meeting of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee on the epidemic prevention and control work.

-- On Feb. 5, he called for a severe crackdown on violence against medical workers, at a meeting of the Commission for Overall Law-based Governance of the CPC Central Committee.

-- On Feb. 10, he extended regards to medical personnel during his inspection of the epidemic prevention and control work in Beijing, making arrangements to address their difficulties and problems. He talked to doctors in Wuhan via a video-link and spoke at length about the protection and care for medical workers during the inspection.

-- On Feb. 14, at a meeting of the central committee for deepening overall reform, he again called for strengthening the building of public health teams and improving the mechanisms for the training, employment, benefits, performance evaluation and incentives for medical practitioners.

President Xi Jinping checks the treatment of hospitalized patients at the monitoring center and talks to medical staff on duty via a video link at Beijing Ditan Hospital in Beijing, on Feb. 10, 2020. (Xinhua/Ju Peng)

Since the outbreak, more than 30,000 medical workers, including military medics, have been sent from across the country to Hubei and Wuhan to fight the epidemic around the clock.

Medical workers help the first batch of patients infected with the novel coronavirus move into their isolation wards at Huoshenshan (Fire God Mountain) Hospital in Wuhan, Feb. 4, 2020. (Xinhua/Xiao Yijiu)

Lauding these medical workers, President Xi said,

-- They embody the great revolutionary spirit of forging ahead without fear of difficulties.

-- Racing against time to fight the virus, they have shown a keen sense of responsibility to the Party and the people.