April this year is the 38th Patriotic Health Month, with the theme of "Building Healthy Towns and Defenses Together". What is a healthy town? How to build a strong defense line for health? At the press conference held by the National Health Commission on the 27th, a series of signals were intensively released around the construction of healthy towns, outlining a new blueprint for urban development from "hygiene" to "health" upgrading. Healthy towns are the upgraded version of the new era of healthy towns, and are the city's business card with richer health connotations. ”Zhuang Ning, Executive Deputy Director of the National Love for Health Office and Director of the Planning Department of the National Health Commission, stated that the creation of healthy towns nationwide will fully leverage the role of village (neighborhood) public health committees, promote the integration of patriotic health movements into grassroots social governance and daily life of the masses. Zhuang Ning introduced that since the National Health Commission launched the creation of national health cities in 1989, a number of national health towns have been created over the past 30 years, providing support for improving the environmental sanitation situation in urban and rural areas and enhancing the overall health level of the people. A set of data outlines the latest achievements: by 2025, the average life expectancy in China will reach 79.25 years, the coverage of sanitary toilets in rural areas will reach about 77%, the coverage of tap water in rural areas will reach 96%, and the health literacy level of residents will be improved to 33.69%. Nowadays, moving from a national health city to a healthy town means integrating the concept of whole life cycle health management into all aspects of urban planning, construction, and management. During this year's Patriotic Health Month, we will take the creation of healthy towns as the starting point and coordinate the promotion of urban and rural environmental sanitation governance. ”Yang Jinrui, Deputy Director of the Propaganda Department of the National Health Commission, said that efforts will be made to strengthen the comprehensive renovation of key areas such as alleys, old residential areas, and urban-rural fringe areas, carry out village cleaning actions in an orderly manner, remove environmental hygiene blind spots, and create a livable and business friendly healthy environment. In February of this year, the National Health Town Management Measures and Evaluation Standards were released; In April, the creation of healthy towns was officially launched at the National Patriotic Health Month event. With a series of top-level designs being vigorously promoted, the roadmap for the construction of healthy towns is becoming increasingly clear. How to build it specifically? In terms of creation scope, implement comprehensive creation, promote balanced urban-rural development, and enhance the health of all people. In terms of creating content, attention should be paid to both environmental hygiene, food safety and other hygiene issues around the public, as well as the health of the population and society, and whether the public is satisfied should be included in the evaluation criteria. We have set evaluation criteria and corresponding indicators around important aspects such as implementing health priority, promoting healthy living, optimizing health services, improving health protection, and building a healthy environment. ”Zhuang Ning stated that the evaluation will be conducted using existing data and on-site undercover visits, without adding any additional burden to grassroots work. At the press conference, multiple places introduced vivid practices in promoting the construction of healthy towns. Dongcheng District of Beijing focuses on the construction of a healthy Dongcheng, focusing on improving the ecological livability level, environmental improvement, and strengthening health service guarantees. Multiple measures have been taken to achieve a continuous decrease in PM2.5 concentration, fine management of 982 back streets and alleys, 50% of the appointment numbers for all district level tertiary hospitals sinking into communities, and mutual recognition of inspection results for district level secondary and above medical institutions. Rushan City, Shandong Province, is actively creating a national health county. Currently, Rushan City has achieved a per capita park green area of 4.7 square meters higher than the national average, and the proportion of people who regularly participate in physical exercise has reached 40%. Next, the system will also develop an implementation plan for the Healthy Rushan Action, compare it with the national standards for creating healthy counties, and sort out key tasks. Zhuang Ning stated that this year, we will comprehensively implement the strategy of prioritizing health development, highlight key tasks such as infectious disease prevention and control, Healthy China Action, Healthy Town creation, and health impact assessment, continue to deepen departmental collaboration, innovate work methods, widely mobilize public participation, and further improve the effectiveness of the patriotic health movement. (Looking into the New Era)