Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, chairs a symposium at the School of Medicine at Tsinghua University in Beijing, capital of China, March 2, 2020. (Xinhua/Yan Yan)

Xi Jinping has chaired a leadership meeting to study the major tasks in preventing and controlling the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and stabilizing economic and social development.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, made an important speech at Wednesday's meeting of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee.

After the whole country's arduous efforts, a positive trend has emerged as the epidemic prevention and control situation has seen steady improvement and the resumption of the order of work and life has been accelerating.

The following are highlights of what President Xi urges:

-- Speeding up the establishment of an economic and social order compatible with the epidemic prevention and control;

-- Consolidating and expanding the hard-won positive trend, and bringing the country's economic and social development back to the normal track at an early date;

-- Creating conditions for securing a decisive victory in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects and eradicating poverty;

-- Understanding the complexity of the current situation for epidemic prevention and control, as well as the economic and social development;

-- No relaxation in the epidemic response preparedness, as the risk of an outbreak is rising in regions outside Hubei as more people move around and crowds gather;

-- More international cooperation on epidemic prevention and control;

-- Targeted and solid measures to push for work resumption to minimize the loss caused by the outbreak.

The meeting demands:

-- continued and solid efforts in strengthening the prevention and control in Hubei and Wuhan, especially at the community level;

-- All COVID-19 patients in severe conditions should be treated at high-level designated hospitals;

-- Intensifying epidemic-related scientific research, with strengths concentrated on tackling the most pressing issues;

-- Differentiated approaches to help work and production resume in regions based on their epidemic situations;

-- Unleashing consumption that had been suppressed by the outbreak and strengthening new and upgraded consumption to compensate the lost consumption on goods and services during the outbreak.

-- Stabilizing foreign trade and investment, assisting businesses, stabilizing employment, creating more jobs, helping college graduates and migrant workers find work, and solving difficulties for small household businesses;

-- Greater efforts to help poverty-ridden areas and the people, especially migrant workers from impoverished regions, to ensure the goal of poverty eradication is met on time, according to the meeting;

-- More attention paid to epidemic prevention and control work in Beijing and other key regions;