Xi Jinping inspects Wuhan, encourages frontline medics

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday arrived in Wuhan, Hubei Province, the epicenter of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, to inspect prevention and control work.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, went straight to Huoshenshan Hospital after arriving in Wuhan.

When visiting Huoshenshan Hospital, Xi learned about its operations, treatment of patients, protection for medical workers and scientific research.

He also visited patients who are being treated there and sent regards to medical workers who have been fighting the epidemic on the front line day and night, encouraging them to firm up confidence in defeating the epidemic.

Huoshenshan is a 1,000-bed hospital built from scratch in just 10 days to specially treat COVID-19 patients.

After leaving the hospital, President Xi visited a community and learned about the prevention and control work there, as well as about the residents' livelihood.

The number of new infections in China has continued to drop, with 19 cases reported on Monday. As of Monday evening, the virus has infected 80,924 people across China, most of them in Hubei.

Xi has been leading China's current battle against the coronavirus outbreak. He pointed out that the outbreak is a major test of China's system and capacity for governance, and the country must learn from the lesson. 

Since January 7, Xi has chaired seven meetings of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and one Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee meeting. The meetings focused on epidemic control as well as measures to resume work and production. He also stressed the need of improving the country's emergency management system and capacity of handling urgent, difficult, dangerous and important tasks. 

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Xi Jinping's key words on COVID-19: People, response and confidence

Under Xi's leadership, the central government formed a central leading group on responding to the COVID-19 outbreak led by Premier Li Keqiang, and Vice Premier Sun Chunlan, who went to Wuhan to lead and guide the epidemic control work in Hubei Province on January 28.

Under his instruction, the Central Military Commission sent over 4,000 military medics to Wuhan to aid fighting the epidemic.