China mulls draft law to boost public health emergency response capacity

BEIJING -- The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), China's national legislature, began deliberating a draft law on public health emergency response as its latest session opened on Tuesday in Beijing.

The proposed law seeks to regulate the response to public health emergencies and enhance the country's capacity to address such situations, according to the draft.

The draft defines public health emergencies as sudden incidents that cause or could potentially cause severe harm to public health and require emergency measures to be taken.

Such incidents include major infectious disease outbreaks, clusters of unexplained illnesses, mass poisoning incidents, and other events that significantly impact public health.

Lei Haichao, head of the National Health Commission, which co-drafted the legislation, said that China's current public health response procedures are based primarily on the Law on the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases, the Emergency Response Law, and the regulations on public health emergency response, which came into force in 2004, 2007 and 2003, respectively.

While existing laws and regulations have played a crucial role in protecting public health, gaps remain in areas such as monitoring, early warning, emergency handling, and coordination between systems, Lei noted, adding that the draft law is intended to address these shortcomings and strengthen legal protections for public health.