World No Tobacco Day 2020

COVID-19 has made many of us reflect on the importance of health - nothing matters without good health, and healthy lungs are essential for us to get back to a normal life.

Data from China shows that people with pre-existing conditions like respiratory disease and cardiovascular disease face a much greater risk of severe illness with COVID-19, and have a higher rate of mortality. There is conclusive evidence that smoking increases the risk for respiratory infections, weakens the immune system, and is a major cause of a number of chronic health conditions including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, heart disease and diabetes. Research has shown that quitting smoking rapidly improves lung function.

Now more than ever, smokers who want to protect themselves from COVID-19 should make every effort to quit, and tobacco control measures need to be strengthened to help smokers quit, protect people from secondhand smoke, and prevent young people from starting the deadly habit of smoking.

The Healthy China Action Plan 2019-2030 highlights the importance of tobacco control and the important role that the government, society, families and individuals should play in reducing tobacco use.

World No Tobacco Day 2020 (WNTD) marked the first WNTD after the launch of the Action Plan; it is also the first WNTD since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

WHO China together with the National Health Commission in China launched a nationwide campaign calling for individual, society and governmental actions on tobacco control.