China will surely win the battle against the novel coronavirus epidemic while ensuring economic stability, as it has advanced epidemic control capabilities, is making all-out efforts and has adopted multiple measures to resume production.

Workers at Shenyang Machine Tools Co., Ltd. affiliated to China General Technology Group test production lines for national key projects. (Photo by Jiang Lin)

Since the outbreak, the entire country has been mobilized and adopted the most comprehensive, rigorous and thorough prevention and control measures. Thanks to these arduous efforts, China’s prevention and control measures are making visible progress.

The number of new confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus pneumonia outside Hubei, the epicenter of the outbreak, has dropped for consecutive days.

On Feb. 18, a total of 56 new confirmed cases were reported, a significant decrease from 890 cases on Feb. 3. The proportion of severe cases among the confirmed cases fell from the initial 38 percent to 18 percent. On the same day, the daily count of cured and discharged cases across the country had exceeded 1,000 for seven consecutive days.

“The rise in the number of cured and discharged patients is a positive sign that the current treatments are getting results,” said Guo Yanhong, an official with the National Health Commission (NHC).

The achievements are also inseparable from the sufficient supply of medical materials. By Feb. 12, Chinese manufacturing enterprises had sent 726,700 isolation gowns, 358,400 masks and goggles, 156 negative pressure ambulances, 2,286 respirators, 6,929 ECG monitors and 761 automotive infrared thermometers to Hubei.

Meanwhile, enterprises have resumed production in a well organized manner. At Haier Industrial Park in Hefei, east China’s Anhui province, eight companies were given approval to resume production on Feb. 10, and over 5,000 staff members of Haier, a leading home appliance maker in the country, resumed work.

Thanks to eight preferential policies issued by the Huangpu district of Guangzhou, south China’s Guangdong province, 80.7 percent of large industrial companies and over 90 percent of Fortune Global 500 industrial companies in the district had resumed production in by Feb. 16.

The China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission specified that banks should not blindly withdraw, cancel or withhold loans from industries seriously affected by the epidemic and has pledged support for companies in temporary difficulties caused by the epidemic. By Feb. 14, financial institutions had granted 537 billion yuan in loans to support epidemic control work.

The epidemic will not change the basic trend of steady long-term growth in the Chinese economy, and investors still have confidence in it, said Peng Lifeng, deputy head of the Financial Market Department of the People’s Bank of China.