Chinese President Xi Jinping calls coronavirus a 'big test' for the country

President Xi Jinping reportedly said that the coronavirus epidemic was the most serious ‘public crisis’ and a big test for China in his recent effort rallying to get people back to work.  Xi Jinping was leading a response to the COVID-19 outbreak as he spoke at a meeting in Beijing, confirmed reports.

According to news agency, Xi Jinping said, “On Jan. 22, in light of the epidemic’s rapid spread and the challenges of prevention and control, I made a clear request that Hubei province implement comprehensive and stringent controls over the outflow of people,” while speaking at the meeting of party’s standing committee.

He further added, “The national efforts against the epidemic have shown results”, speaking in context to the declining new cases in mainland China that fell for the third consecutive day. The health commission of China reported that the total confirmed cases decelerated to 68,500 with only 2,009 new cases that emerged past 24 hours, confirmed reports.

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Percentage of severe cases dipped to 7.2% 

Mi Feng, the spokesperson for the health commission told the media that the percentage of severe cases dipped to 7.2 per cent of the total from a peak of 15.9 per cent which was detected in January. The proportion was higher in Wuhan city in the Hubei province where the outbreak first originated, but it has recently fallen to 21.6 per cent, he added.

“The national efforts against the epidemic have shown results,” Mi said at the commission’s daily media briefing. Over 9,419 patients have recovered so far from the COVID-19 and were discharged from the hospitals, suggest reports.

Zhang Lifan, a commentator in Beijing, told the media that the local authorities should take responsibility for failing to take effective measures to stem virus spread after Xi gave instructions in early January. He further added that President Xi Jinping was willing to take responsibility because he was aware of the situation, Zhang said.

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(With inputs from AP)