Emergency response The country will further strengthen its public health emergency response system, as some areas of weakness have been exposed in coping with the COVID-19 epidemic, a health official said on Saturday. Li Bin, deputy head of the National Health Commission, told a press conference that more efforts will be made in emphasizing prevention, supporting both traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine and combining routine practices and actual emergency responses. No masks at school Students in areas with low risks of infection of the novel coronavirus are not required to wear masks at school as many local governments are stepping up efforts to reopen classrooms, according to a notice on Friday. The notice, released by the National Health Commission and the Ministry of Education, focuses on control and prevention of COVID-19 at kindergartens, elementary, junior and senior high schools. Mother buried alive A man suspected of burying his paralyzed mother alive has been detained with counts of attempted murder by local police, the public security bureau in Jingbian, Shaanxi Province, said on May 6. A notice published by the bureau said on May 2, the suspect, a man surnamed Ma, 58, loaded his mother, Wang, 79, on a handcart and pulled the cart to a deserted tomb in Jingbian County before burying her alive. The case was reported by Ma’s wife, Zhang, on May 5, three days after Wang disappeared. Zhang was told by her husband that her mother-in-law had been sent to a relative’s home. COVID-19 vaccine A coronavirus vaccine developed in China has been proven effective in monkeys. PiCoVacc, a vaccine made by Beijing-based Sinovac Biotech, used a very typical method to prevent the virus from infecting life forms: Putting a crippled virus into an animal’s body, forcing its immune system to produce antibodies. Work resumption Over 90 percent of the respondents in a recent survey said they have resumed their work as the novel coronavirus epidemic subsides in China, according to a survey by China Youth Daily. The survey, published on Thursday, polled 2,015 people. Over 58 percent of the people resuming work said their employers have fully restored ordinary work.(SD-Agencies) | 