Management of Infectious Disease Epidemic Early Warning
Measures for the Management of Infectious Disease Epidemic Early Warning (Trial)
Article 1 These Measures are formulated in accordance with laws and regulations such as the "Law of the People's Republic of China on the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases" and the "Biosafety Law of the People's Republic of China," as well as relevant national provisions, in order to standardize and guide infectious disease epidemic early warning work, prevent and mitigate infectious disease epidemic risks, and safeguard the life and health of the people.
Article 2 These Measures apply to the formation, transmission, response, and feedback of infectious disease epidemic early warnings (hereinafter referred to as "early warnings") within the territory of the People's Republic of China. Early warning situations include public health risks caused or potentially caused by statutory infectious diseases, emerging infectious diseases, diseases of unknown causes, and other key infectious diseases, necessitating the alerting of potentially affected populations, relevant departments, or institutions to take preparatory preventive measures in advance.
Article 3 Infectious disease epidemic early warning work adheres to the principles of prioritizing life, prevention first, lawful management, territorial responsibility, timely warning, and action-oriented response.
Article 4 Early warnings as referred to in these Measures include health risk alerts, warning information notifications, and early warning decision-making proposals.
(1) Health risk alert refers to disease control and prevention agencies at all levels informing the public about infectious disease epidemic risks, helping the public improve their scientific understanding of infectious diseases, guiding them to take necessary and appropriate protective measures, and protecting their own health.
(2) Warning information notification refers to disease control and prevention departments at all levels notifying risk-related departments, risk-related areas, and local medical and health institutions about infectious disease epidemic risk information, prompting coordinated efforts for infectious disease risk control and epidemic prevention.
(3) Early warning decision-making proposal refers to proposals submitted by disease control and prevention departments at all levels to the health administration department, for submission to the people's government at the corresponding level, regarding the issuance, adjustment, or termination of an early warning.
Article 5 The National Disease Control and Prevention Administration is responsible for establishing the infectious disease epidemic early warning work system and guiding disease control and prevention departments at all levels in carrying out infectious disease epidemic early warning work. Provincial-level and lower-level disease control and prevention departments shall implement the infectious disease epidemic early warning work system, be responsible for establishing and improving the infectious disease epidemic early warning mechanism within their respective administrative regions, and guide disease control and prevention agencies at their level and disease control and prevention departments at lower levels to standardize infectious disease epidemic early warning work. Based on risk assessment results, they are responsible for issuing warning information notifications and submitting proposals to the health administration department for submission to the people's government at the same level regarding early warning decision-making proposals.
Disease control and prevention agencies at all levels are responsible for collecting multi-channel infectious disease surveillance information, conducting analysis of surveillance information and risk assessment. Based on the results of risk assessment and work requirements, they shall release health risk alerts to the public, and propose suggestions such as warning information notifications and early warning decision-making proposals to the disease control and prevention department at the same level.
Article 6 Disease control and prevention departments at all levels shall, in conjunction with relevant departments at the same level such as health administration, education, civil affairs, agriculture and rural affairs, customs, immigration, forestry and grassland, as well as disease control and prevention departments in neighboring areas, establish and improve working mechanisms, establish joint meeting and liaison officer systems, promptly exchange and consult on infectious disease surveillance information, risk assessment results, and proposed measures, to achieve information sharing and early warning coordination.
Article 7 Disease control and prevention agencies at all levels collect multi-channel infectious disease surveillance information, conduct infectious disease epidemic risk assessments, identify potential public health risks, and evaluate the epidemic risk level. Risk levels are divided into four grades: extremely low risk, low risk, medium risk, and high risk. When the risk level is low risk or above, they shall formulate health risk alerts and propose suggestions such as warning information notifications and early warning decision-making proposals. When the risk level is extremely low risk, routine surveillance work shall continue.
The risk grading standards shall be separately organized and formulated by the National Disease Control and Prevention Administration.
Article 8 When the risk assessment level is low risk and requires the public to take certain protective measures, disease control and prevention agencies at all levels shall release health risk alerts to the public.
Health risk alerts may include characteristics of the infectious disease pathogen, epidemiological features, main clinical symptoms, recent surveillance results, key prevention and control points, protective measures for key populations, and public protection recommendations. Health risk alerts shall be scientific, clear, and easy to understand, avoiding overly specialized language, and may be disseminated through various channels.
Article 9 When the risk assessment level is medium risk and requires medical and health institutions, risk-related departments, and areas to take certain professional preventive measures, disease control and prevention agencies at all levels shall propose suggestions for warning information notifications to the disease control and prevention department at the same level, while simultaneously issuing health risk alerts.
Upon receiving suggestions from the disease control and prevention agency, the disease control and prevention department at the corresponding level shall promptly conduct a comprehensive assessment, jointly with relevant departments, considering impacts on medical order and socio-economic factors. If a warning information notification is deemed necessary, it shall be promptly issued to relevant disease control and prevention agencies, lower-level disease control and prevention departments, local medical institutions, as well as risk-related departments and disease control and prevention departments in risk-related areas. Warning information may include the epidemic situation (e.g., hazards of the infectious disease, scope of impact, development trends), and proposed measures such as professional technical training, preparation of personnel, equipment and materials, case identification and reporting, health management of key institutions, ventilation and disinfection of key venues, and protection of occupational groups.
Warning information notifications shall ensure timeliness, be conducted in a secure and internal manner, and be simultaneously reported to the local government and the higher-level disease control and prevention department. Disease control and prevention departments shall establish workflows for issuing warning information notifications.
Article 10 When the risk assessment level is high risk, disease control and prevention agencies at all levels shall, within 2 hours, propose to the disease control and prevention department at the same level suggestions for issuing an infectious disease early warning and for legally adopting early warning measures.
Upon receiving suggestions from the disease control and prevention agency, the disease control and prevention department at the corresponding level shall organize a multi-disciplinary risk assessment expert group to review the risk assessment results of the agency at its level, and conduct comprehensive analysis and judgment of the infectious disease epidemic risk. If it is deemed necessary for the people's government to issue an early warning, the disease control and prevention department shall promptly submit a written proposal to the health administration department requesting submission to the people's government at the same level for issuing an early warning and legally adopting corresponding early warning measures, while simultaneously reporting to the higher-level disease control and prevention and health administration departments.
Article 11 Disease control and prevention agencies at all levels shall guide units receiving early warnings to legally adopt epidemic risk control measures such as health monitoring, reducing gatherings, strengthening protection, resource preparation, and training exercises, and cooperate with disease control and prevention agencies in carrying out case investigation, epidemic reporting, and consultation and analysis, to eliminate or reduce the risk of epidemic occurrence and spread. When the people's government issues an early warning, all units shall legally implement the early warning measures.
Disease control and prevention agencies at all levels shall continuously monitor the development trends of infectious disease epidemics, assess and analyze the evolution of the epidemic and its risks, and provide professional public health support.
Article 12 Disease control and prevention departments and agencies at all levels shall strengthen risk communication, proactively collect feedback on early warning responses from the public, medical and health institutions, and risk-related departments, evaluate the effectiveness of early warnings, and re-issue warnings if the expected early warning effect is not achieved.
Article 13 Disease control and prevention departments and agencies at all levels shall dynamically adjust the type and content of early warnings based on the development of epidemic risks. For early warnings already issued to the public by the government that require adjustment based on epidemic changes, the disease control and prevention department shall propose adjustment suggestions and submit them to the health administration department for reporting to the people's government at the same level to decide according to law.
Article 14 If the development and spread of an infectious disease epidemic constitutes a general or above public health emergency, disease control and prevention departments at all levels shall report to the health administration department, promptly report to the people's government at the same level and propose emergency response suggestions. In accordance with the deployment of the people's government at the same level, they shall legally adopt measures for the prevention and control of infectious disease epidemics and public health emergencies.
Article 15 Disease control and prevention departments at all levels shall strengthen guidance regarding health risk alerts issued by disease control and prevention agencies at their level, as well as warning information notifications and early warning decision-making proposals submitted by lower-level disease control and prevention departments. Problems identified shall be urged to be adjusted. If there is no risk of cross-regional spread of the infectious disease epidemic or no significant change in the risk level, in principle, higher-level disease control and prevention agencies should not issue duplicate warnings for health risk alerts released by lower-level disease control and prevention agencies.
Disease control and prevention departments at all levels shall summarize and analyze experiences and practices in infectious disease epidemic early warning, continuously optimize the mechanisms for the formation, transmission, response, and feedback of early warnings, strengthen coordination with emergency responses, and achieve continuous optimization and improvement of early warning work.
Article 16 Disease control and prevention departments and agencies at all levels shall encourage and support efforts to establish early warning indicator thresholds, epidemic databases, and algorithm model libraries for infectious disease epidemics, strengthen the research and application of technologies such as big data, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence, to provide support for achieving multi-point triggering and intelligent early warning.
Article 17 Disease control and prevention departments at all levels shall provide necessary personnel funding, equipment, facilities, and institutional guarantees for infectious disease epidemic early warning work, and strengthen cross-departmental and cross-agency interoperability. Relying on existing information systems and network infrastructure, they shall build or utilize national and provincial-level integrated regional infectious disease surveillance, early warning, and emergency command information platforms to support early warning operational needs.
Article 18 Early warning content shall be clear, accurate, authoritative, and professional. Personal information shall be protected. Early warnings shall not be issued without authorization, nor shall they be fabricated or disseminated arbitrarily.
Article 19 These Measures shall come into effect on the date of issuance.