Chinese life expectancy to hit 77 by 2020

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People exercise at Ritan Park during a clear day in Beijing, Thursday, Dec. 22, 2016. Cold winds on Wednesday night pushed out much of the air pollution that left Beijing and dozens of other cities under a five-day "red alert," the highest level in China's four-tiered warning system that affected 460 million people forcing closed schools, grounded hundreds of flights and announced emergency shutdowns of factories and highways. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

 

The average life expectancy for Chinese will reach 77 years by 2020, one year more than the figure in 2015, the health authority announced, reports Chinese media on Sunday.

While introducing a health development plan for the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-2020) at a press conference, Ma Xiaowei, deputy head of the National Health and Family Planning Commission, said a national medical and health system that covers both urban and rural residents will be formed by 2020.

To support the two-child policy, China will have 89,000 more maternity beds as well as 140,000 more obstetricians and midwives by 2020, Ma said.

Meanwhile, the country will establish a standardised medical test system for identifying partly disabled and disabled seniors, and provide targeted medical services based on the test results, said Ma.

Ma also promised better health services at local hospitals to address the needs of home-based and community-based eldercare.