China will downgrade management of COVID-19 from Class A to Class B from January 8, 2023, and multiple measures will be rolled out to protect people's lives and health, according to a statement released by the National Health Commission (NHC) on Monday.

The country will focus on preserving health and preventing severe cases following the adjustment, Liang Wannian, head of the COVID-19 response expert panel under the NHC, said at a press conference.

The country's health regulator said that the vaccination rate of the elderly should be ramped up, and the second dose of booster immunization be promoted among those with severe illness.

Drugs and testing reagents related to the treatment of novel coronavirus infection, which was renamed from novel coronavirus pneumonia on the same day, should be prepared to meet patients' medication and testing needs.

Additionally, it called for better categorized diagnosis and treatment systems in medical facilities as well as preparing for inpatient beds and intensive care beds.

It urged to optimize the deployment and allocation of health resources, strengthen community-level capacity building for COVID-19 diagnosis and treatment, and coordinate treatment of the disease with other medical services.

The country will carry out health surveys on the elderly aged 65 and older with basic diseases and provide tiered and classified diagnosis and treatment.

At the same time, prevention and control measures for key people-intensive places will be strengthened, including nursing homes, welfare houses, hospitals, schools and kindergartens.

For rural areas, China will ramp up its efforts to provide medical care for rural elderly people, patients with basic diseases and other high-risk groups.

Measures including nucleic acid testing and centralized quarantine targeting inbound travelers will be dropped, and control measures on the number of international passenger flights will be lifted, according to the statement.

Currently, COVID-19 is classified as a Class-B infectious disease but subject to the preventive and control measures for a Class-A infectious disease in China, with which three classes (Class A, Class B and Class C) of notifiable infectious diseases in 40 categories are listed.

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