No infectious epidemics reported in snow-hit areas

BEIJING—No cases of infectious epidemic or mass food poisoning were reported in China’s snow-stricken areas by Feb. 14, the Ministry of Health said on its official website.
It said 25,115 medical teams with more than 182,900 staff had been dispatched to treat 402,200 ill and injured persons in disaster areas by Thursday. The medical teams mainly focused on treating respiratory diseases, fractures and frostbite. No epidemics or mass food poisoning induced by the prolonged snow were reported.
Authorities delivered close to 10 million brochures advising the public on disease prevention and the impact of the bad weather. Over 1.99 million cotton-padded coats and quilts were sent to disaster-hit areas. So far, the death toll caused by infectious diseases in the snow-stricken areas showed no year-on-year increase in the past month, the ministry said.
The prolonged low temperatures, icy rain and heavy snow in the southern part of China have claimed 107 lives in the past month and caused direct economic loss of an estimated 111.1 billion yuan (about 15.3 billion U.S. dollars). By Wednesday, the Civil Affairs and Finance ministries had allocated a total of 535 million yuan (73.79 million U.S. dollars) in emergency funding to 19 provincial-level regions affected by the disaster.
The ministries also earmarked another 710 million yuan for needy urban and rural residents in seven of the worst-hit provinces and regions as temporary subsidies. Participants of a symposium held by China’s top advisory body urged the country to make greater efforts in monitoring and assessing possible meteorological disasters.
“We should learn from the prolonged snow storms in the southern parts of China in the past month, and perfect our early-warning system and emergency-response mechanism against meteorological hazards,” said Zheng Guoguang, China Meteorological Administration (CMA) head, here on Thursday. He attributed the rare prolonged snowstorms and low temperatures, the worst winter weather in 50 years in some areas, mainly to abnormal atmospheric circulation and La Nina, the climatic opposite of El Nino.
He added the snow havoc also exposed problems the meteorological departments should work to improve. “The meteorological departments have to some extent miscalculated the snowstorms with regards to their durations, intensity and influences over the transportation and power supply sectors of the country,” Zheng said.
He also lamented the “insufficient cooperation” between meteorological departments and transport and power supply departments, as well as the public’s lack of knowledge of meteorological disasters. Zheng’s comments were echoed by Qin Dahe, former CMA head, who was also present at the symposium. He urged the country to strengthen potential meteorological disaster evaluations to keep key industries and residential areas from frequent disaster-stricken areas. However, no specific agenda to improve monitoring and assess possible meteorological disasters was set at the meeting. Disasters caused by prolonged low temperatures, icy rain and heavy snow in the southern part of China in the past month have killed 107 people and left eight others missing as of Feb. 12, Civil Affairs Minister Li Xueju said here on Wednesday.—Xinhua