Staff members deliver daily necessities to a closed-off community in Chengguan District of Lanzhou City, northwest China's Gansu Province. File photo: Xinhua

As a number of incidents that occurred in recent days sparked concerns among the public over rigid COVID prevention measures disregarding people's lives in some parts of China, Ordos city in North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region published a notice on Thursday, saying that no matter what happens, safeguarding people's lives will always be their priority.

In view of the problems exposed in the process of epidemic prevention in some parts of the country, Ordos authorities said they will learn from the lessons, adhere to the principle of people first and life first, further smooth the rescue mechanism, and enhance the emergency response capacity, so as to safeguard the lives and properties of people under quarantine, the notice said.

The notice made a solemn announcement to all local residents, that "in Ordos, whatever happens, we will always put saving lives as a priority."

It further detailed the emergency hotlines that people can use to ask for help during their quarantine, noting that government departments will deal with the reported matters in no time to solve their problems.

The notice also reminded residents that if they encounter situations that endanger personal safety, especially an emergency situation, they have the right, as written in the Criminal Law and the Civil Code of China, to take measures to save themselves or take emergency shelter.

It went on to assure the public that they will arrange relevant departments to retrace and judge the process of the matter afterwards, and provide necessary legal assistance and deal with the matter according to the law.

The notice soon gained heated attention across Chinese social media platforms. One netizen commented on China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo that they feel so warm because this is the perfect example demonstrating the principle of serving the people.

In recent days, scientific and precise COVID control has been repeatedly stressed by the country's top health authorities and across regions.

The Chinese National Health Commission stressed on Wednesday that the country must strive to control COVID-19 outbreaks with the minimum scale affected, and the shortest time and lowest cost possible, in a bid to correct mistakes from overly strict measures that have caused damage to people's properties and lives.

The Global Times found multiple regions in the country have vowed in recent days to implement precise epidemic controls so as to gradually restore the usual vitality of their cities.

It came after the epidemic prevention works in Lanzhou, the capital city of Northwest China's Gansu Province, was questioned by the public after a 3-year-old child died of carbon monoxide poisoning, prompting controversy as netizens suspected the tragedy might have been avoided if it were not for local epidemic control workers' delayed response and rigid work style.

On Thursday, local authorities made public the full timeline of the incident, including the entire process from the time the community received the report until the arrival of the ambulance on the scene. The city authorities vowed to seriously handle the problems exposed in the incident, including unsmooth first-aid mechanism, poor capabilities of emergency response and bureaucratic and officials with rigid work style.