A nurse collects blood for a child at a children's outpatient service of a hospital in Changchun, northeast China's Jilin province, Nov 24, 2023. (PHOTO / XINHUA)

BEIJING - The overall volumes of people being diagnosed with and treated for respiratory diseases have continued to see a decreasing trend nationwide, a health official said on Sunday.

Data shows that in the week ending on Dec 22, the number of people diagnosed with and treated for respiratory diseases at secondary and higher-level medical institutions fell 8.2 percent from the week earlier, a drop of 30 percent from this year's peak level, National Health Commission (NHC) spokesperson Mi Feng said at a press conference.

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Grassroots-level medical institutions have played a crucial role in ensuring basic medical services since demand for such services began growing this autumn and winter.

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"The volumes of people diagnosed with and treated for respiratory diseases at the grassroots level have remained stable, and recent monitoring data shows a contracting tendency", according to NHC official Fu Wei.

About 40 percent of patients with respiratory diseases in the country have been treated in grassroots-level medical institutions since Nov 26, Fu said.