KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 26): Grassroots clinics for fever patients are being opened in many places across China, especially in small towns and cities, providing medical services to local residents.

In a report on Monday (Dec 26), Chinese government mouthpiece Global Times (GT) said that grassroots clinics for fever patients are being opened in many places across China, especially in small towns and cities, providing general medical services and treatment of patients with mild fever and consultation on medication.

It said grassroots clinics for fever patients are being opened in many places across China, especially in small towns and cities, to enhance the capacity of the local medical system to deal with the epidemic.

These changes are among the latest efforts by Chinese cities to cope with rising numbers of Covid-19 cases.

GT said many places across the country are operating consultation rooms near neighbourhoods, business districts and other public places that can receive fever patients and prescribe basic medicines, adding that many of these clinics are converted from nucleic acid testing booths.

Many nucleic acid testing booths were made redundant after China scaled back mandatory testing.

In addition to the consultation rooms, some have also been repurposed as vaccination rooms, according to the company that supplies the booths in Shenzhen.

Citing a statement posted on the official website of the Sheyang county, East China's Jiangsu province, where 17 fever clinics in local medical institutions have been put into operation as scheduled, the report said: "Grassroots medical services have become the first line of defence to protect the safety of rural residents, and the construction of fever consultation rooms will provide strong medical protection for the first wave of an infection peak”.

These clinics usually provide residents with services for eight hours a day, including general diagnosis and treatment of patients with mild fever and consultation on medication.

Moreover, it also provides patients with a health consultation, medication guidance, antigen testing and other services related to Covid-19, and guides residents to do self-health monitoring and home quarantine.