BEIJING, March 15 (Xinhua) — An article by President Xi Jinping on providing strong scientific and technological support for winning the battle against novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) will be published Monday on the Qiushi Journal, a flagship magazine of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee.

Stressing that science and technology are the most powerful weapon in humanity's battle against diseases, Xi, who is also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, said in the article that mankind can not defeat a major disaster or epidemic without scientific development and technological innovation.

The article highlighted linking the research on medicines and medical equipment with clinical treatment, and that saving the lives of more patients was the most pressing and important task.

The task of paramount importance for scientific research is treating severely and critically ill patients, and traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine should be combined for treatment, according to the article.

Vaccine is vital to epidemic prevention and control, with its safety the top priority, the article noted, calling for speeding up vaccine research and development while closely following the progress of related research overseas.

The article also stressed coordinating research on virus source tracing and transmission routes to figure out where the virus came from and how it will develop.

(Source: Xinhua)