国内英语新闻:China to send more life support machines to COVID-19 epicenter

BEIJING, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- A leading group of China's COVID-19 response on Thursday called for sending more advanced medical resources, especially life support system ECMOs, to Hubei Province, the epicenter of the epidemic.

The group, headed by Premier Li Keqiang, demanded further efforts to treat the severely ill COVID-19 patients to reduce mortality in Hubei, particularly in its capital city of Wuhan.

Li, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, presided over the meeting.

Precise prevention and control measures for key groups should be implemented, said the meeting.

Despite a significant drop in the ratio of severely ill among confirmed cases recently, the number remains large, mostly in Hubei, the meeting said.

According to the National Health Commission, there were still 7,984 severe cases in Hubei, including 7,049 in Wuhan, as of the end of Wednesday.

"A prominent task of current containment is to strengthen treatment for the severely ill," the meeting said.

The meeting stressed the work to ensure sufficient supply of daily necessities in Wuhan and Hubei, and to guarantee basic living conditions for people including non-Hubei residents who have been stranded in the province due to the suspension of transportation.

Opening dates of the new semester for colleges, primary and secondary schools as well as kindergartens should, in principle, continue to be postponed, according to the meeting.

The meeting also stressed cooperation with the World Health Organization and relevant countries and regions to continuously expand the positive trend in the prevention and control work, adding that cooperation in diagnosis and treatment plans and research on drug and vaccine development should be strengthened.

Joint control measures with the international community should be adopted to effectively prevent imported and exported epidemic cases amid the cross-border movement of people, the meeting said.

Wang Huning, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and deputy head of the leading group, attended the meeting.