On December 31, 2020, the Chinese National Health Commission（NHC） issue an announcement regarding the hygiene and safety evaluation of low-temperature use disinfectants, aimed to address the continuous covid-19 contamination detected in cold-chain items and scattered cases reported as temperatures decrease. The low-temperature use disinfectants are now specified with definite efficacy and stability test conditions distinct from normal use disinfectants.

On November 11, 2020, China’s State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) and the State Standardization Administration jointly issue the national standard,” GB38598-2020 General Requirement for Label and Instruction Book of Disinfection Products”, which will be mandatorily implemented starting from December 1, 2021.

Disinfection products refer to a sort of disease-preventing products that eliminate pathogenic microorganisms and block the transmission through chemical, physical and biological methods. The Chinese “Measures for the Control of Disinfection” classifies disinfection products into disinfectant, disinfecting apparatus and sanitary products.

On August 4, 2020, the General Office of the National Health Commission released the final notice regarding the enhanced regulation of disinfection products during the Covid-19 control, which was consulted early on June 19. Apart from the aims of resuming normal record-filing management of non-new disinfectants and ensure the safety and effectiveness of disinfection products produced in China and intensifying the ex-post surveillance of disinfection products already been placed on the market, the emergently placed disinfectants will have a longer transitional period to complete the normal record-filing procedures until December 31, 2020.

On June 19, 2020, the General Office of the National Health Commission opened a 30-day consultation on a notice concerning the enhanced regulation of disinfection products during the Covid-19 control, aimed to resume the normal record-filing management of non-new disinfectants and ensure the safety and effectiveness of disinfection products produced in China, as well as intensify the ex-post surveillance of disinfection products already been placed on the market.

The Chinese Standardization Administration (SAC) has recently released the full content of 7 national standards regarding the toxicological study, storage stability test, efficacy evaluation and production management of disinfectants, all of which will be implemented on October 1, 2020.

On 2nd Aug 2019, the MoARA’s Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Bureau issued a missive to all provincial subordinates to recommend 10 disinfectants for African swine fever (ASF) control, which will be officially popularized among hog  all over the country.

On 30 Jan 2019, the National Health Commission published 6 voluntary hygienic standards for biocidal products, which will take effect on 1 Jul 2019. Among them, the “WS/T 650-2019 Evaluating Method for Efficacy of Antibacterial and Bacteriostasis” was firstly issued. The standard specifies 13 testing methods, procedures the application scope and criteria for commonly used items with antimicrobial claim including hand cleaner, sprays, gels, wet wipe, facial mask, sanitary towel, diaper, towel, underwear, socks, fabric, plastics, floorboards and tiles, etc. These antimicrobial products are mostly categorized as the Category II disinfection products but comparatively in a regulatory grey zone because most of them are not yet included into the pre-marketing assessment. Considering the complicacy of product type and feature, WS/T 650-2019 can be an evident progress and these commonly used antimicrobial products are likely to be brought into supervision after NHC made adequate clarification on product definition/scope, necessity of risk/safety assessment and relevant evaluation guidelines.

On 12 Oct 2018, China NHC released the hygienic standard “WS 628-2018 Technical Requirements for the hygiene and safety evaluation of disinfection products”, which will be mandatorily implemented starting on the 1st of Mar 2019. The new standard includes some technical amendments to a former ministerial regulation, “Rules on the Hygienic and Safety Assessment on Disinfection Products”. Prior to marketing existing Category I and Category II disinfection products in China, producers and importers need to conduct hygiene and safety assessment and file the assessment report at provincial health departments. WS 628-2018 will be enforced in parallel with the ministerial rules. Producers and importers need to comply with the technical requirements in product testing, sample preparation and report compilation and follow the administrative requirements set forth in the rules.