China's strict COVID-19 policies, which have been routinely modified over the past three years to tackle the ceaseless mutations of the novel coronavirus, have saved millions of lives in the country, many netizens said.

Social media platforms are flooded with messages of gratitude, and the hashtag "Thank the country for protecting us for three years" has become hugely popular amid optimization of epidemic control measures last week, including the scrapping of negative nucleic acid test results for entering public places.

A user on Sina Weibo, who goes by the name Nancy Ruonan and shares her location as Xi'an, Shaanxi province, said on Friday that she is "glad and grateful" that the color of her health code always stayed green, indicating that she was safe from the virus.

"Epidemic control measures were rolled out nationwide in December 2019, and some of these have been relaxed this December.... Now it is up to us," she wrote.

Nancy Ruonan also posted a series of small stickers that were given to the people as proof of mass nucleic acid testing in Xi'an. "I will keep the stickers that I have collected because they mark an era," she added.

A popular post, published in a public account on messaging platform WeChat on Wednesday, summarized the collective sentiment of netizens on COVID-19 control in China.

The user, Zhang Yongsen, wrote that the Chinese people shouldn't forget how proud they were when China was one of the safest countries in 2021, amid spiraling cases and a heavy death toll across the globe.

"I have lived abroad since the beginning of the pandemic. I have seen people die and their bodies were just left on the streets. The world may be divided over China's epidemic control measures, but the measures have undeniably saved the lives of millions of people," he said. "I am grateful that those measures protected my loved ones at home, especially my elderly parents."

Another WeChat user, Qinglian, said China protected its people during the worst phase of COVID-19, when variants of the virus were virulent and deadly. The country is still doing what is best for its people in terms of health and safety, the user added.

On Friday, the National Health Commission emphasized that COVID-19 treatment resources and intensive care will improve in coming days, and medical services for pregnant women, children and the elderly will receive a boost.

According to the commission, makeshift hospitals will be retrofitted with necessary equipment, so that they can function as sub-designated hospitals if the patient load increases.

Top-tier hospitals are required to maintain special intensive care units to treat severe COVID-19 cases.

The number of these ICU beds should be at least 4 percent of a hospital's total number of beds. As Plan B, the commission has advised that these hospitals increase the number of beds as needed.