Chinese mainland offers support to HKSAR on COVID-19 control

SHENZHEN, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- A senior health official from the Chinese mainland has put forward instructive suggestions on the response to the latest resurgence of COVID-19 taken by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) at a video exchange meeting on Friday.

Wang Hesheng, deputy head of the National Health Commission, also introduced the mainland's experience in curbing locally-transmitted COVID-19 clusters at the meeting held between the mainland's work teams and HKSAR's anti-epidemic work team.

During the meeting, the five working groups from the mainland and their counterparts from the HKSAR briefed each other on the progress of their respective work.

They also coordinated their work on the most urgent tasks in HKSAR's fight against COVID-19, including improving nucleic acid testing capacity, increasing admission rates, reducing mortality rates, establishing makeshift hospitals, and providing medical supplies and daily necessities.

The current epidemic situation in Hong Kong is complicated and challenging, and both sides should maintain close communication, strengthen cooperation and act quickly to ensure that all anti-epidemic measures are effective, said the meeting.