Shijiazhuang in North China's Hebei Province starts its second round of mass nucleic acid testing on January 12.Photo: VCG

In order to support the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 in North China's Liaoning and Hebei provinces, the National Health Commission has mobilized 30,000 milliliters of blood plasma for the treatment of critically ill patients, health officials said at a State Council press conference on the joint prevention and control mechanism on Wednesday in Beijing.

"China has accumulated a lot of experience in the treatment of severe cases, such as using the convalescent patients' plasma in the early stages of treatment, and adopting multimodality therapy by combining traditional Chinese and Western medicine," said Guo Yanhong, an inspection specialist with the Department of Medical Administration. 

In recent COVID-19 cluster infections in Hebei and Liaoning, more elderly people and people suffering from basic cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases have been affected.

According to statistics, the average age of the confirmed cases in Hebei Province is 50 years old, and 30 percent of the cases are over 60. In Liaoning Province, 37% of the population is over 60 years old, with an average age of 53.

Guo said that after the outbreak, Hebei immediately set aside designated hospitals with good medical conditions and concentrated all patients for centralized treatment. National expert teams were immediately dispatched to the designated hospitals together with the local expert teams to provide the best treatment plan for the patients.

Currently, the treatment of patients in Liaoning and Hebei is progressing smoothly, and local medical staff have strengthened the observation and monitoring of patients with mild symptoms to reduce the transition from mild to severe cases, she added.

Global Times