Disease control body to establish oversight

Emergency response, monitoring and management roles fall within powers

A central-level disease control and prevention body, which was established amid the COVID-19 pandemic, will take charge of a range of work regarding China's emergency response capacity, monitoring of infectious diseases and oversight of the public health sector, according to a circular issued on Wednesday.

The document, issued by the general offices of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the State Council, stipulates that the National Administration of Disease Prevention and Control will also be tasked with supervising and managing local disease control agencies and disease control work at medical institutions.

Experts have said that by consolidating the responsibilities in one agency, as well as giving it more power to lead lower-level institutions, the administration is expected to help prevent outbreaks and safeguard public health.

Even though China remains one of the few countries capable of effectively reining in the local spread of COVID-19, the pandemic has prompted calls for reform of its disease prevention and control system.

One widely discussed issue has been that in China, disease control responsibilities and decision-making power were dispersed among multiple government departments, hampering the rollout of coordinated and assertive measures in the face of an acute health emergency.

According to a regulation released by the National Health Commission on the heels of the circular, the commission－the country's top health authority－will transfer a majority of its disease control responsibilities to the administration and dismantle its bureau of disease prevention and control.

Wang Chenguang, a professor from Tsinghua University's School of Law, said the new regulation has clearly laid out a series of responsibilities for the administration.

"By sweeping these duties under the reign of one institution, we can prevent the weakening of disease control ability due to scattered management," he said during an interview with 8am Health Insight, an online media portal.

The commission, a ministerial-level body, will still oversee the disease control administration, which is designated as being on a vice-ministerial level.

Jin Chunlin, head of the Shanghai Health Development and Research Center, said that by boosting the authority level of the agency to a relatively independent, vice-ministerial body, the guidance and requirements it issues to local governments will be better noted and enforced.

The regulation also said that the administration should "strengthen its leading role in professional work at other levels of disease control agencies and step up coordination across them".

Zhong Nanshan, a top respiratory disease expert, said during an earlier interview that the COVID-19 outbreak has shown that convoluted procedures for reporting an emergency to higher authorities could lead to missing the window of opportunity for swift containment.

"The establishment of the National Administration of Disease Prevention and Control can make up for the shortfall and save precious time," he said.

The agency will also oversee enforcement of health regulations, with the commission's bureau of inspection and supervision abolished.

Zeng Guang, former chief epidemiologist at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said the change could help smooth the work of public health workers, such as those conducting epidemiological investigations－a crucial tool in tracking down infections as early as possible.

In April last year, China appointed Wang Hesheng, a vice-minister of the National Health Commission, as head of the National Administration of Disease Prevention and Control, the first time that information about the new body was released to the public.

Its office, located in Beijing's Haidian district, was unveiled in May last year.

Shen Hongbing, one of the administration's four deputy chiefs, said in an article published in an academic journal this month that with infectious disease control and emergency response its core responsibility, the administration and local agencies are expected to work together to establish an efficient and powerful disease control system that can effectively cope with major outbreaks and health emergencies, and protect public safety.