China encourages grassroots teams to protect rural villages from COVID

China is promoting grassroots teams consisting of village officials, doctors and volunteers, to ensure one-to-one service for vulnerable groups in villages to prevent and curb the severe cases of the COVID-19 in the country's broad rural areas.

That move aims to detect the COVID cases in villages much earlier, as the nation is also speeding up the process of identifying severe cases, the preliminary treatment and referrals in rural China, said a primary health official at a news conference on Saturday.

"Detecting COVID cases earlier in villages requires grassroots teams to offer one-to-one communication with key groups," said Nie Chunlei, director for primary health at the National Health Commission, adding that key groups include the elderly aged above 65, children and those with disabilities.

"There should be no fewer than communication twice every week, to find and solve the problems in time," he said.

The teams should monitor and identify the complications of pre-existing diseases and symptoms of severe COVID cases in time and give primary treatment, such as oxygen inhalation and medicines, Nie said. "Those key people should be referred to higher-level hospitals if necessary."

Wu Hao, dean for general practice at Beijing-based Capital Medical University, said the one-on-one communications include non-contact exchanges, such as telephone, video and WeChat, and in-person home visits.

According to Wu, the vulnerable groups are labeled with three colors -- green, yellow and red -- based on their health situations, and they can also offer to reach out to the village teams.

"The village teams must contact villagers labeled yellow no fewer than twice weekly, and contact those labeled red no fewer than three times, to monitor their physical conditions," he said.

"Once there are COVID infections or worsening of pre-existing diseases among key groups, measures should be promptly taken, including monitoring vital signs and blood oxygen saturation," Wu said.