(Photo/Chinanews.com)

Since China opened a green channel for human organ delivery in 2016, the time it takes to transport organs to recipients has been reduced by 1 to 1.5 hours, the National Health Commission told a news conference in Shanghai on Nov. 26.

In 2017, there were only 13 airliners in China that could deliver organs. The number reached 16 in 2018 and 22 in September 2019.

A total of 5,146 organs were donated in 2017, and 6,302 organs were donated in 2018. In 2018, China ranked second in the world in terms of the number of organs donated, as well as the number of transplants performed.

Organ transplantation technologies in Chinese hospitals continue to improve, with some technologies reaching an advanced international level.

China is a front-runner in terms of the survival rate in organ transplant surgery. The one-year and three-year survival rates of liver transplant recipients in China stand at 92.5 percent and 89.8 percent, respectively.

The one-year survival rate of heart transplant recipients in China was 90.8 percent in 2018, higher than the global standard of 85.4 percent.