Editor's note: Yin Xiaoxv is a professor at the Department of Social Medicine and Health Management of Tongji Medical College under Huazhong University of Science and Technology. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily those of CGTN.

Although World Health Organization (WHO) experts believe the COVID-19 pandemic is at a transition point, the WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus "concurs with the advice offered by the Committee regarding the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and determines that the event continues to constitute a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC)," on January 30.

Amid the latest pandemic situation, China is trying to figure out the prevention and control work in the new phase of the COVID-19 response. The Chinese government has adjusted its response strategy based on current realities, while the pandemic situation during the week-long Spring Festival holiday was generally stable. The massive migration during the travel rush and subsequent family gatherings did not spark another spike of infection cases in rural areas.  

Nonetheless, as people return to their workplaces, there will be another huge migration, while many vulnerable groups are left behind in rural areas. Therefore, the COVID-19 prevention and control in rural areas could require more urgent attention. Administrative authorities should formulate targeted prevention plans, and take practical measures to keep the pandemic under control in rural areas.

Local officials should review the prevention protocols and treatments implemented for the first wave of the pandemic in rural areas before the Spring Festival, promptly identifying deficiencies and taking remedies.  

It's also essential to build county-level integrated healthcare consortiums by mobilizing healthcare institutions in rural areas, with county hospitals as the mainstay, township health centers as the hubs, and village clinics as the bottom-layer functional units of the network.  

Administrative authorities, healthcare institutions and enterprises should coordinate on providing medical supplies in rural areas. For vulnerable groups such as the elderly, children, and pregnant women, who are at higher risk, they should receive enhanced monitoring of health status to ensure that severe cases can be transferred to more appropriate health care facilities.

Additionally, once the pandemic is found to spread, the COVID-19 response plan should be be adjusted.

It would be wise to make full use of the existing rural governance resources to carry out some monitoring, since schools, child nursery centers, elderly care institutions could be subject to the high risk of infections, and the elderly and left-behind children account for a major share of local population. It could be helpful to conduct a survey to gather first-hand information on local pandemic situations, while taking note of the potential risks related to the pandemic.

It's required to raise awareness of medical personnel in primary healthcare institutions about the ever-changing pandemic situations, so that they can report on virus mutations and symptom changes. They should also analyze the impact of virus mutations on current means of treatment and vaccine protections.

Besides, a reality-based work mechanism should be established to upgrade healthcare services in rural areas.

And even if the rural people have reached herd immunity after massive infections, there could be multiple spikes of infection with mutations of the virus. Now, as the young adults have returned to work in the cities, many the elderly, left-behind children, people with disabilities are left unattended. In this case, more attention should be paid to them.

The government should consider establishing a database of information on them by checking out their health status and compiling health records for them. They should sign up for health services provided by general practitioners. These primary care physicians can offer treatments for these key social groups. Especially in the event of another COVID-19 infection wave, those physicians should maintain communication with them.

The COVID-19 response is a systematic process involving a wide range of factors. At present, the focus of China's pandemic response efforts is on "protecting people's health and preventing severe cases." The way to reduce the impact of the pandemic on the economic and social development of rural areas is to improve pandemic response plans and focus on protecting key population groups.

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