Lei Haichao, vice-minister of the National Health Commission (NHC), led a survey in Zhangjiakou in North China's Hebei province and Beijing municipality from Dec 2 to 3 to survey and guide COVID-19 prevention and control, as well as medical security for the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games.

The survey team visited Chongli district of Zhangjiakou and Yanqing district of Beijing, as well as the Winter Olympic Village, competition venues and media centers in Beijing to learn more about closed-loop management, emergency response drills, the construction of medical facilities and the availability of medical personnel.

A coordination meeting on medical security for the Beijing 2022 was held to set work priorities for the next stage.

Lei stressed that COVID-19 prevention and control and medical care are important prerequisites for a successful Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games.

It is necessary to attach equal importance to COVID-19 prevention and medical services, he noted.

All-out efforts should be made to push forward scientific and targeted pandemic prevention and control, strictly implement closed-loop management in different regions and at different levels, further improve COVID-19 prevention manuals, optimize technical links, and unify standards and requirements, so as to minimize the risks of the pandemic.

Life should be put first, Lei said and called for more endeavors to strengthen emergency response training and drills.

He said related departments should put emphasis on on-site medical rescue, give full play to experts, optimize transfer procedures and enhance information system construction and interconnection of medical facilities in all venues and regions, so as to effectively improve rescue capacity in response to on-site medical emergencies.