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 angencies 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 desease 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 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
taht by boosting the authority level of the agency to a relatively independent,
vice-ministerial body, the guidance and requirements it issues to local government
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 teh 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 shorfall 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 adn 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 tiem 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.