4 | Wednesday, September 1, 2021 HONG KONG EDITION | CHINA DAILY CHINA Govt makes subsidized Poultry returns Experiment rental housing a priority sees divers By Hou Liqiang put under [email protected]

China has built more than 78 China has built up million government-subsidized pressure homes since 2008, benefiting the largest more than 200 million people, the government- By LUO WANGSHU country’s leading housing official [email protected] said on Tuesday. subsidized home Aside from building public rent- system in the world.” China has completed a land- al housing, affordable rental apart- based saturation diving experi- ments and homes with shared Wang Menghui, minister of ment replicating the pressures ownership, the country has also housing and urban-rural experienced 500 meters rebuilt many areas in shanty development underwater, the Ministry of towns to meet low-income fami- Transport said on Tuesday. lies’ demand for housing, said over by Premier Li Keqiang. The country has made signifi- Wang Menghui, minister of hous- The renovation work will give cant progress in the develop- ing and urban-rural development. priority to the upgrading of roads ment of such technology, Wang “China has built up the largest and water, electricity, gas and opti- Lei, director of China Rescue and government-subsidized home sys- cal fiber facilities. In communities Salvage, a department under the tem in the world,” he told a news where conditions permit, elevators ministry, told an online news conference organized by the State will be installed and parking lots conference in Beijing. Council Information Office. will be built, a statement released Ducks swim on a pond as a farmer tends to them in Lihua village, Hengyang, Hunan province, on Tuesday. Apart from the United States The ministry will continue to after the meeting said. The village, which has a long tradition of raising ducks, has invited salted duck egg companies to boost the and France, few other coun- improve the system during the “Thanks to the joint efforts of local economy. CAO ZHENGPING / FOR CHINA DAILY tries have successfully sent div- 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) different government bodies and ers as deep as 500 meters. period with the target of “meet- local governments, positive China had been conducting ing the housing needs of all peo- progress has been made in the ren- saturation diving tests since ple”, he said, adding the ovation work,” Huang said. the 1970s. construction of government-sub- Central authorities have distrib- In 2014, it successfully sent sidized rental housing will be uted more than 245 billion yuan divers to a depth of 313.5 made a priority. ($37.9 billion) to help local govern- meters. Wang said the country has also ments promote the program. By First Wuhan cluster The most recent experiment made persistent efforts to renovate the end of last year, the renovation started on May 22, when nine dilapidated buildings in rural are- of about 219,000 old residential divers from the Shanghai rescue as in recent years to help people communities had been completed, department entered a pressur- who were previously plagued by Huang said. ized cabin. poverty. She said the ministry plans to likely due to imports On May 27, the pressure was He said 7.9 million such build- begin renovating another 53,000 increased to a level equivalent ings have been renovated, with the such communities this year and to 500 meters underwater. The program benefiting roughly 25.7 the work has already started in Early traces of virus found overseas in that export cold chain food to pressure in the cabin was then million rural residents. most of the communities. Wuhan.” increased to the equivalent of Vice-minister Huang Yan said In the next step, the ministry areas involved in cold chain shipments Horseshoe bat and pangolins, two 502 meters. that in the next five years the min- aims to “enable people to feel more of the most likely sources of the nov- Participants stayed in that istry will accelerate the renovation satisfied, happy and secure” by By Wang Xiaoyu Across Wuhan, cold chain prod- el coronavirus, are widely distribut- high-pressure environment for of urban residential communities resolving major problems resi- [email protected] ucts from 37 countries or regions ed across Southeast Asia, southern 176 hours and carried out sever- that were built before the turn of dents face, Huang said. arrived in the city from September to China and sub-Saharan Africa, al experiments. the century. She said intensified efforts, for The cluster of COVID-19 infec- December 2019, he added, citing according to a study published by The divers returned to nor- The decision to renovate such example, will be made to promote tions at a seafood market in Wuhan, results of a review conducted by Chi- Chinese scientists last month on a mal pressure and walked out of communities was made at an exec- the installation of elevators and Hubei province, in late 2019 was nese and international experts dur- preprint server managed by the Chi- the cabin on June 25. utive meeting of the State Council improve property management in likely triggered by cold chain ing a mission convened by the World nese Academy of Sciences. After three weeks of monitor- on June 19, 2019, that was presided old communities. imports contaminated by the novel Health Organization earlier this year. The study said that as an interna- ing and observation, the partici- coronavirus, researchers from the “These suppliers were scattered tional transportation hub, Wuhan pants were deemed physically Chinese Center for Disease Control in quite a wide geographical area, received many flights from South- and mentally healthy. and Prevention said. including Southeast Asia and east Asian countries where the two Saturation diving, commonly Street art They found that dozens of foreign Europe,” Liu said. animals live. used in rescue operations at sea, regions that had shipped cold food Some countries involved in cross- “Therefore, before the pandemic, enables rescuers to work at products to Wuhan, including the border cold chain trade with Wuhan Wuhan was already at a high risk of greater depths underwater for a Huanan seafood market, overlapped have found that blood serum sam- importing SARS-CoV-2 through longer period of time while with areas that reported very early ples collected in 2019 tested positive cold chain cargo from other parts of reducing the risk of decompres- traces of the virus, adding that more for the virus during retrospective the world,” the study said. Liu was a sion sickness when compared extensive testing is needed to estab- studies, he said. co-author of the study. with conventional techniques. lish a definitive association between Positive test results before or Based on these findings, Liu said China started research in the the early circulation of the virus over- around December 2019 — when the that the possibility of the virus’ field in the 1970s and success- seas and its entry into the market. virus hit Wuhan — are an indicator introduction into the market in fully sent divers to 103.5 The Huanan seafood market was of the virus’ stealthy transmission in Wuhan and the wider city via cold meters underwater for the first put under a spotlight during the regions outside the city. chain contamination was valid and time in 2006. search for the origins of the virus France, Brazil and the United merited further investigation. In 2013, divers were sent as because some of the earliest infec- States have all reported positive Chinese researchers have per- deep as 198 meters. tions detected in Wuhan in Decem- results in pre-pandemic blood, formed many epidemiological and Wang said the development ber 2019 were linked to the market. throat or sewage samples, Chinese genome sequencing surveys at the of saturation diving technolo- However, as evidence supporting experts told a briefing in late July. market, he said. gies can help China handle the virus’ long-distance transmis- For instance, researchers in Brazil They found that confirmed infec- emergencies in offshore res- sion via contaminated cold chain said they had detected genetic mate- tions were more common among cues. They also helped clean up products grows, the hypothesis that rials of the virus in local waste water cold chain vendors at the market oil that leaked from the tanker the cluster of infections at the mar- collected in November 2019. In than other sellers, and the earliest Sanchi when it sank in the East ket in Wuhan was sparked by cold France, a throat sample taken from three cases reported at the market China Sea in 2018. food imports has begun to take a patient who coughed up blood in all worked with cold food products. Wang said the next step is to shape, said Ma Huilai, deputy head late December also came back posi- Among the 21 shops that were carry out a 500-meter underwa- A massive mural decorates the side of a residential building on of the China CDC’s center of post- tive for the virus. found to contain positive environ- ter saturation diving experi- Huangjueping Graffiti Art Street in Chongqing’s Jiulongpo district graduate education and training. The virus was likely brought into mental samples at the market, 16 of ment in a real undersea on Monday. The street features the city’s largest collection of murals, Liu Jun, a professor at the China the market from countries that them managed cold chain goods, he environment. covering 6,500 square meters of walls. HE PENGLEI / CHINA NEWS SERVICE CDC’s National Institute for Viral reported animal virus strains highly added. This year marks the 70th Disease Control and Prevention, said similar to human infections, experts Liu said a promising approach to anniversary of China Rescue that more than half of the nearly 680 said. clarify the issue would be to cooper- and Salvage. vendors at the Huanan seafood mar- “Some countries have found that ate with foreign countries that had Wang said China will strive ket were involved in the cold chain the virus harbored by local horse- supplied cold chain goods to the to build a better professional trade, and they handled imports shoe bats is homologous to the novel market, in order to survey, test their search and rescue team in the Two Party members from 20 foreign countries or regions, coronavirus,” Liu said. “These coun- cold chain workers and check their next five years that will cover a covering 29 different food categories. tries also overlapped with countries hospital visit records. wider area and respond to emergencies more quickly. lauded as role models Maritime search and rescue forces should respond to and The Publicity Department of of dairy farming as the pillar COVID: Strong evidence of transmission reported arrive at emergency sites with- the Communist Party of China industry, helping local people in 100 nautical miles (185 kilo- Central Committee on Tuesday shake off poverty. From page 1 Disease Control and Prevention, for viral disease control, said that meters) of the shore in no more posthumously awarded the title of The other recipient was Sun said only proactive monitoring the number of cold-chain products than 90 minutes. “Role Model of the Times” to two Limei, former Party secretary of When investigating a cluster of across the cold-chain industry will imported to China that tested posi- Since its establishment, the officials who devoted their lives to Guxian village in Xiapu county, COVID-19 infections in Qingdao, enable researchers to ferret out tra- tive for viral contamination was team has rescued 82,783 peo- the development of rural areas. Fujian province. She died early Shandong, in October, live virus ces of the virus on cold-chain prod- not high, considering the huge vol- ple stranded at sea — 12,703 of One of the recipients, Qiu Jun, last month at the age of 44 during was identified on the outer packag- ucts. This could explain why only a ume of such imports. them foreigners. fell ill at work in November and typhoon relief efforts. ing of cold-chain products that had few countries, including China, However, he said: “If one person The COVID-19 pandemic has died in January at the age of 39. She was also posthumously been handled by two infected port have reported strong evidence of is infected with SARS-CoV-2 not stopped China’s rescue and Qiu originally worked as an offi- awarded the title “March 8th Red workers, the first time such a dis- this aspect of the virus’ transmis- through the cold chain, this case search missions. cial at China National Chemical Banner Pacesetter”, an honor that covery had been made in the world, sion, Xu said. may cause community infection via The country has prevented Engineering Group in East Chi- recognizes outstanding women in Ma said. “If a country or a region is experi- human-to-human transmission, the spread of the novel corona- na’s Anhui province. China, by the All-China Women’s Two infected cold-chain workers encing severe COVID-19 outbreaks, resulting in a wider epidemic.” virus and carried out rescue In 2018, he volunteered to go to Federation, as well as “Outstand- were also found to have engaged in it is impossible for local scientists Xu said hunting down the origin missions at the same time, said Huachi county in Northwest Chi- ing Communist Party Member of high-risk behavior, such as taking to track down the virus’ possible of the virus will be extremely diffi- Zhang Jianxin, deputy director na’s Gansu province and served as Fujian”. off their masks to smoke while at covert transmission in the cold- cult. However, the enormous vol- of the department. the county’s deputy head, commit- The Publicity Department of work. Genome sequencing of the chain sector,” he added. ume of global trade should During the pandemic, rescu- ting himself to lifting the place out the CPC Central Committee said viral strain that infected them In China, domestic transmission pressure the international commu- ers are required to wear protec- of poverty. on Tuesday that Qiu and Sun found it was almost identical to a of the virus was blocked and local nity to establish a cooperation tive gowns when carrying out China National Chemical Engi- worked on the front line of pover- strain detected on frozen products. infections were cleared by April mechanism. rescue missions to prevent the neering Group said Qiu overcame ty alleviation and rural vitaliza- “The chain of evidence is nearly last year, creating a favorable envi- He also said sampling and test- spread of the virus and avoid drastic changes in the natural tion. complete in this instance, giving ronment for China to later track ing procedures for the cold-chain imported cases, he said. environment, culture and job “They were excellent Party robust support to the hypothesis sources of new outbreaks and iden- industry should be carefully After saving stranded for- responsibilities and quickly famil- members, cadres and role models that the novel coronavirus can be tify “patient zero” of a new infec- defined. “There are a variety of eigners, disinfection will be iarized himself with conditions in who served and were dedicated to carried by cold-chain products or tion cluster. “It is true that virus cold-chain products. Questions like carried out in the area. Follow- the county by diving into field the grassroots, took up their packaging over long distances and spreading via a cold chain is a rare which batch of products will be up health monitoring will also research in 15 towns and villages. responsibilities and worked hard,” trigger new local outbreaks,” she event, but once it occurs, the inci- sampled and how to test them be implemented. After gaining overall knowledge it said. said. dent can lead to large outbreaks,” against the virus should be dis- The team has rescued 247 of the county, he tapped into local Xu Wenbo, head of the China Xu said. cussed and defined based on scien- foreigners and 12 international features and led the development China Daily CDC’s National Institute for Viral Liu, from the national institute tific principles,” he said. vessels this year.