Mars probe

Mars probe Tianwen-1 is expected to enter Mars’ orbit next month, according to the China National Space Administration (CNSA).

As of 6 a.m. on Sunday, the Mars probe had flown in space for 163 days. It was about 130 million kilometers from Earth and about 8.3 million kilometers from Mars. According to the CNSA, the probe is functioning stably and is scheduled to slow down before entering Mars’ orbit in more than a month and preparing itself to land on the red planet.

Economic recovery

China is confident it will sustain its economic recovery and achieve stable development this year, said an official with the country’s top economic planner.

The country is still in an important period of strategic opportunity for development, Ning Jizhe, deputy head of the National Development and Reform Commission, told Xinhua in a recent interview. Ning, also head of the National Bureau of Statistics, said that to foster a new development paradigm, efforts will be made to improve the quality of the supply system through work in areas including sci-tech innovation, industrial and supply chains, and grain security.

COVID vaccine

China announced on Thursday that it had granted conditional marketing authorization for its first self-developed COVID-19 vaccine.

The inactivated vaccine, which got the approval from the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA), is developed by the Beijing Biological Products Institute Co. under the China National Biotec Group (CNBG), which is affiliated with Sinopharm. The interim results of its clinical trials show 79.34 percent efficacy against COVID-19, meeting the standards of the World Health Organization and the NMPA, according to a press conference by the State Council joint prevention and control mechanism against COVID-19.

Elderly care services

The civil affairs authorities will strengthen vocational and legal education for nursing staff to eliminate maltreatment in elderly care institutions in the country, a senior official said last week.

Gao Xiaobing, vice minister of civil affairs, made the remarks at a policy briefing on guidelines for establishing and improving a comprehensive supervision system for elderly care services.(SD-Agencies)