Number of workplace casualties drops

China has experienced significant drops in casualties from workplace accidents and natural disasters since 2018, said Wang Xiangxi, minister of emergency management, on Thursday.

The number of workplace accidents across the country from 2018 to 2022 went down by 80.8 percent from that in the previous five years, he told a news conference organized by the State Council Information Office. As to casualties, the decrease stood at 51.4 percent.

The number of people left dead or missing in natural disasters in the past five years declined by about 54.3 percent from the previous five years, he said.

He stressed "giving priority to prevention" as one of the major approaches the ministry has adhered to since it was established in 2018.

The ministry was established during an institutional reshuffle of the State Council, the country's cabinet, absorbing 13 responsibilities from 11 government bodies, mostly related to disaster relief.

The ministry has installed online monitoring facilities in 6,900 hazardous chemical enterprises, 3,400 coal mines and over 2,400 tailings ponds. The facilities can automatically alarm abnormity, Wang said.

He said the ministry has also rolled out a series of campaigns to rule out safety hazards. For instance, it has dispatched 20 teams to areas across the country to guide local governments beef up governance over welding and cutting operations, which were to blame for a number of recent deadly fire accidents.