President chairs top leadership meeting

BEIJING: Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, on Friday chaired a leadership meeting to analyze the COVID-19 response and economic performance.
The meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee made new arrangements on coordinating the COVID-19 response and economic and social development.
It also deliberated on two reports on poverty eradication. The meeting came two days after Xi presided over a meeting of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, also on epidemic response and economic situations. “Major changes are taking place in the epidemic control and economic situations at home and abroad,” according to a statement released after Friday’s meeting.
Overseas, the coronavirus outbreak has been spreading at an accelerated pace, seriously impacting world economic and trade growth, the meeting noted.
“China is facing an increasing pressure of imported cases as well as new challenges in terms of economic development, especially the industrial chain recovery,” the statement said.
The meeting underscored focusing on preventing infections influx from abroad and epidemic rebound at home to ensure that the epidemic situation in China keeps moving steadily in a positive direction. The meeting stressed the implementation of priorities in epidemic response to every detail to consolidate and sustain the positive trend in containing the epidemic.
It said major affected regions should continue containment measures and treatment of patients while taking steps to gradually restore people’s normal work and life, and low-risk regions should make it a regular mechanism to swiftly detect, cope with and treat new cases so as to resolutely prevent a resurgence of the outbreak.
Calling for more care for Chinese nationals overseas, the meeting required efforts to closely follow and analyze the development of the global COVID-19 epidemic situation and quickly identify and control risks. – Agencies