BEIJING -- Nearly 4 million workers from China's primary-level medical and health institutions have played an important and unique role in the fight against the coronavirus, a health official said Sunday.

The medical institutions include both community health service centers in cities and clinics in rural areas, said Zhu Hongming, an official with the National Health Commission, adding that some of them provide round-the-clock services.

In the wake of the outbreak, medical workers at the primary level have engaged in timely detections of fever patients and suspected cases to ensure the implementation of isolation and patient transfer, while they also need to carry out daily diagnosis and treatment for common diseases and the management of chronic diseases, Zhu said.

The medical workers have conducted carpet screening alongside community workers, informing residents who need to carry out home-based isolation and checking their temperature every day, the official said.

Zhu noted that medical workers also work in places with heavy flows of people such as airports and ports to help cut off virus transmission routes at the front lines.