Xi confident impact will be short term

President Xi Jinping says the Covid-19 outbreak is "a big test" that requires the "most difficult" prevention and control strategies since 1949, but its economic impact will be short-term.

Xi said the virus is a major public health emergency with "the fastest spread, widest range of infections and with the most difficult prevention and control" since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949.

"For us, this is a crisis and a big test," Xi said at a meeting in Beijing to further coordinate containment efforts and minimize economic and social impacts.

Xi demanded local governments push enterprises to resume work and production as well as effectively protect people's livelihoods.

He also urged scientific and technological research and development be sped up, saying multidisciplinary forces should be integrated to carry out scientific research as well as enhance the invention of drugs and vaccines.

This comes as the National Health Commission yesterday announced 648 confirmed cases and 97 more deaths from the coronavirus on Saturday, taking the total to 76,936 cases and over 2,442 deaths. No new cases were reported in Beijing and 20 provinces for 24 hours on Saturday. Among provinces, Tibet has not reported any new case for 24 days while Qinghai has not seen one for 17 days.

Developed provinces like Jiangsu have been case-free for four days, and Zhejiang has been case-free for one day.

But a 29-year-old female doctor at a Wuhan hospital died from the coronavirus yesterday.

Xia Sisi, a gastroenterology physician, was infected while treating a patient at Union Jiangbei Hospital.

She was admitted on January 19 with a fever. Her condition deteriorated on February 7 and she was transferred to Zhongnan Hospital at Wuhan University.

She died at 6.30am yesterday. She is survived by a husband and a two-year-old son.

Husband Wu Shilei, an orthopedic doctor, said Xia's illness was stable in the beginning, but her breathing and heart suddenly stopped at midnight on February 7. She was resuscitated but remained unconscious, Wu said.

Doctors had used extracorporeal membrane oxygenation on her before she died yesterday morning.

Wu said their whole family have told his son that his mother was just working.

The Wuhan government yesterday demanded patients discharged from hospital to spend 14 more days in quarantine at a designated location for observation.

This included a half-month-old infant who just left hospital - the youngest patient to recover from the virus.

charlotte.luo@singtaonewscorp.com