Zhejiang's pneumonia epidemic emergency response has been adjusted to level two! What is the difference between level one and level two?

Recently, the total number of cured and discharged cases of COVID-19 has surpassed the number of confirmed cases nationwide for the first time. The Zhejiang Provincial Government has also adjusted the emergency response level to level two. So, what are the differences between level one and level two?

1. What is the specific situation of Zhejiang’s emergency response being adjusted to Level 2?

On the morning of March 2, Provincial Party Committee Secretary Che Jun presided over a meeting of the Provincial Party Committee Standing Committee to earnestly study and implement the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important speech at the meeting of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee, and study and deploy the next steps in our province’s epidemic prevention and control and resumption of work and production. The meeting decided to adjust the province's epidemic prevention and control emergency response level from level one to level two.

2. What are the differences between level one and level two?

According to the "Emergency Response Law of the People's Republic of China" and the "National Emergency Response Plan for Public Emergencies", emergencies are divided into four categories: natural disasters, accidental disasters, public health incidents, and social security incidents. The current COVID-19 epidemic is a public health incident. According to the nature, severity, controllability and scope of impact of the incident, the level of emergency events is divided into four levels: Level 1 (extremely serious), Level 2 (serious), Level 3 (large) and Level 4 (general).

Generally speaking, the first-level response is organized and implemented by the State Council, and provincial-level people's governments organize and coordinate emergency response work within the province under the unified leadership and command of the State Council. Lowering the emergency response level indicates that the scope, nature and degree of harm of the epidemic have been reduced, and the organizing and implementing departments responsible for responding to the epidemic have also been lowered accordingly. If adjusted to Level 2 response, the provincial people's government will lead and direct the emergency response work within its administrative area. If adjusted to Level 3 response, the municipal people's government will lead and direct the emergency response work within its administrative area. If adjusted to Level 4 response, the county people's government will lead and direct the emergency response work within its administrative area. The people's government at the next higher level may provide guidance and support to the people's government at the next lower level based on actual conditions.

After the outbreak of the new coronavirus pneumonia, the state promptly launched a level one (extremely serious) emergency response to public health emergencies, and provincial people's governments also launched a level one response in accordance with the unified deployment of the state. Recently, various places have gradually reduced the first-level response to level two or three based on the development trend and control situation of the novel coronavirus pneumonia epidemic in their provinces and in accordance with their respective standards for the level of public health emergencies.