JILIN, Jilin Province, May 16 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Vice Premier Sun Chunlan called for more decisive, precise, flexible and effective measures in regular epidemic prevention and control to avoid further spread of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Sun, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, made the remarks during an inspection tour in northeast China's Jilin Province starting on Wednesday night.

The inspectors stressed to speed up screening, testing, quarantine and treatment of COVID-19 cases and conduct thorough epidemiological investigations.

The inspection team underlined the need to immediately improve the nucleic acid testing capabilities and expand the testing range of people to ensure early detection, reporting, quarantine and treatment.

Sun urged enhanced treatment for the patients combining Chinese and Western medicine, strengthened epidemic prevention and control in key areas and venues, extra attention on key groups of vulnerable people and rigorous traffic control.

She also demanded open and transparent COVID-19 reports, timely response to the public concerns and better publicity on healthcare knowledge to improve people's awareness of self-protection against the virus.