Premier visits lab over H7N9 control

BEIJING - Chinese Premier Li Keqiang visited the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC) on Sunday morning, calling for more efforts in fighting the new H7N9 bird flu and preventing epidemics in the country's quake-hit area.

Li came to the laboratory in China CDC to see how it monitors viruses and undertakes genetic sequencing analysis, endorsing the work of staff in controlling the spread of H7N9 by developing reagents in a timely way, and urging further monitoring of the H7N9 bird flu.

He later spoke via videophone with the CDC in the eastern province of Zhejiang, which is among the first areas to report H7N9 cases, saying that although Sunday marked one month since the epidemic emerged, it is still important to find, report and cure cases of the virus in a timely way.

The premier urged the staff to strictly monitor and update the public on the situation concerning H7N9, and make people's lives and health their work's priority.

During his visit to the China CDC, Li also called the organization's local establishment in Lushan County of Sichuan Province which was struck by a 7.0-magnitude earthquake a week ago.

He urged CDC staff there to double their efforts to prevent epidemic outbreaks in earthquake victims' make-shift shelters, in order to avoid aggravating the aftermath of the quake.

The Lushan quake has left at least 196 people dead and more than 13,400 others injured.