Hard-hit cities told to scale up prevention measures

A meeting chaired by Premier Li Keqiang on Thursday called for the authorities in Wuhan, the epicenter of the novel coronavirus pneumonia outbreak, to accelerate steps to offer treatment to confirmed and suspected cases and isolate close contacts in curbing the contagion.

The meeting of the leading group of the Communist Party of China Central Committee on coping with the outbreak also stressed the need to enable Xiaogan and Huanggang, cities in Hubei province also hit hard by the outbreak, to adopt medical treatment and isolation measures on a par with those in Wuhan, the provincial capital.

The authorities in Hubei and Wuhan must scale up control over roads leading out of the province and the city to prevent the spread of the epidemic, said a statement released after the meeting.