Shaanxi rolls out virus prevention, control efforts

The Information Office of the Shaanxi Provincial Government held a press conference on Feb 4, briefing the media about the prevention and control situation for the novel coronavirus in the northwestern province.

Officials said the province’s first confirmed patient with the virus was pronounced cured and discharged from Tangdu Hospital of Air Force Medical University of the PLA on the morning of Feb 4.

In the afternoon of the same day, another patient was cured and discharged from the First Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University.

As of 10 am on Feb 4, Shaanxi had confirmed 142 cases of infection and 221 suspected cases. Officials said that 6,240 people who have had close contact with confirmed infected patients have been traced.

Among the confirmed cases, males accounted for 59.44 percent and females account for 40.56 percent of the total. The distribution of cases in all ages is mainly 20 to 49 years old.

In the wake of the outbreak, the province arranged to deploy and strengthen its environmental supervision operations such as medical waste disposal, environmental emergency monitoring, drinking water source protection, medical sewage and urban sewage treatment.

At present, each of the 10 districts and cities in the province has a centralized medical waste disposal center with a total disposal capacity of 149 metric tons per day.

In addition, no artificial breeding programs with animals in the wild were found and no cases of wild animal artificial breeding sites were identified, nor related workers who were infected.

Also, the province has abundant grain inventory, sufficient market supply with stable prices, which can fully guarantee the ration food supply of the urban and rural residents

Officials said that in addition, compared with the pre-holiday period, current sales of flour, rice and barreled edible oils have increased and market retail prices have remained flat, with shortages reported.