China Details Public Health Expansion as Average Life Expectancy Reaches 79.25

China's public health infrastructure now spans over 1.1 million healthcare institutions, with national average life expectancy reaching 79.25 years, according to state media reports outlining progress under the Healthy China strategy. More than 90 percent of residents can access medical services within a 15-minute radius. Concurrently, authorities are expanding clinical-preventive healthcare integration, transitioning to nationwide digital vaccination registries, and operating an infectious disease surveillance network that links more than 84,000 healthcare facilities, sentinel hospitals, and pathogen laboratories.

Sustaining a resilient public health and primary care network is essential for safeguarding the health of more than 1.4 billion people. The metrics reported by Chinese authorities indicate an increasing institutional shift toward early disease prevention, digital tracking, and grassroots accessibility, which are critical for mitigating the long-term healthcare burdens of an aging society.

China has built the world's largest healthcare, traditional medicine, disease prevention, and medical security system, with national average life expectancy reaching 79.25 years, according to a report published by People's Daily outlining milestones in the country's public health campaign. The country currently operates more than 1.1 million healthcare institutions across urban and rural regions, enabling over 90 percent of residents to reach their nearest medical service facility within 15 minutes. Key national health indicators have advanced into the upper tiers among upper-middle-income countries and nations with populations exceeding 100 million. A central focus of ongoing healthcare reforms is the structural integration of clinical treatment and preventative care. Under this model, clinicians serve as frontline health managers who combine treatment with preventative interventions. In local pilots, such as at Xiangshan First People's Hospital in Ningbo, Zhejiang province, doctors now issue direct vaccination prescriptions to chronic disease patients identified as high risk during routine follow-ups. China's national immunization program currently provides free vaccines protecting against 16 infectious diseases, maintaining an immunization coverage rate above 90 percent for eligible children. Reported incidence rates for vaccine-preventable conditions, including measles, hepatitis A, Japanese encephalitis, and epidemic cerebrospinal meningitis, have fallen to historical lows. Public health authorities are also transitioning paper-based vaccination booklets into digital records, with nationwide cross-provincial data sharing expected to be completed within the year. In addition to baseline immunization, public health bodies have expanded surveillance infrastructure to detect infectious disease outbreaks at an early stage. According to officials from the National Disease Control and Prevention Administration, the national infectious disease monitoring network now covers approximately 84,000 healthcare institutions, 1,323 sentinel hospitals, 39,000 pathogenic microbiology laboratories, and 1,752 vector and urban wastewater monitoring sites. Multi-channel surveillance across fever clinics, environmental testing stations, and community health centers has been credited with providing early warnings to contain localized infectious clusters.