China has been strengthening its plague treatment and surveillance mechanism in Beijing and northern Inner Mongolia, adding comprehensive prevention and control measures, including investigating the source of the disease and the emergency response in Inner Mongolia, China's National Health Commission said on Thursday.

Information on the situation will be made public promptly in accordance with the law, and public health information dissemination will be conducted to ensure people's health, said the commission.

The two patients who were confirmed with pneumonic plague on November 12 remain in critical condition. A medical team is doing its utmost to treat them. All those who were in close contact with them were released from quarantine on November 21.

A patient who was diagnosed with bubonic plague on November 16 in Ulanqab City, Inner Mongolia, continues to be treated in isolation at a local hospital, and their overall condition is stable. Those who came into close contact with that individual were released from medical observation and confinement on November 23.

A new case of the bubonic plague was confirmed on Wednesday in Ulanqab City. The patient is being treated in a local hospital with an overall stable condition. Four people who were in close contact with the patient have been isolated for medical observation.

No other new cases of the plague have been reported so far.

Inner Mongolia has large areas where the pathogen for the plague exists in nature. Contact with infected animals such as rodents or rabbits cause one to become infected with the disease.

Experts have pointed out that plague is preventable, controllable and treatable. The suggested safety measures in plague outbreak areas include reporting dead mice, rabbits, suspected plague patients, unexplained high fever patients and sudden deaths. Prohibiting poaching animals from a tainted source, eating or ingesting animals or animal products from a source associated with the plague is also vital.