A senior citizen gets free anti-pademic medicine kit from a medical worker at a community medical service center in Qingdao, Shandong province. [Photo/IC]

Shandong province has launched a series of measures to brace for peaks of COVID-19 infections in rural areas, where seniors and children often account for the majority of the population.

Shandong is a province with a large elderly population. According to the Shandong Health Commission, in order to strengthen epidemic prevention and control and health services in rural areas, Shandong has conducted health surveys for over 16 million elderly people in rural areas, and organized 32,000 family doctor teams to better protect vulnerable groups.

Shandong health authorities have strengthened medical preparedness in rural areas.

Shandong strengthens medical preparedness in rural areas. [Photo/IC]

Apart from regular preparation like stockpiling PPE and medicines, and issuing medical guidelines, the local government has established tiered medical services by cooperating with a medical consortia, medical communities, urban medical groups, and county and village medical institutions to conduct graded and classified diagnoses and treatments for COVID-19 patients.

The province has also strengthened telemedicine services through smartphone applications to offer online diagnoses and treatments, which can supplement such offline medical services.

Currently, all 2,043 township health centers (community health service centers) in Shandong province have set up monitored fever clinics, and township health centers and village clinics can receive patients 24 hours a day. Green channels have been established for the elderly and children with critical illnesses.