HANDICRAFTS: Dough figurine maker Liang Junli demonstrates her works during an intangible cultural heritage exhibition that was held in the ancient town of Guandu in Kunming, Yunnan Province, on January 21 (CHEN HAINING)

Bird Flu

Two patients, including a medical worker, being treated for the H7N9 strain of avian flu, died in Shanghai, local health authorities revealed on January 20.

Both tested posthumously positive for the H7N9 virus, according to the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Health and Family Planning.

The agency said that it was conducting further investigation and trying to track the source of the infection.

Shanghai has confirmed seven human H7N9 cases so far this year.

Zhejiang, a province located south of Shanghai, reported six more cases of H7N9 on January 19 and 20.

The new cases brought the number of infections in Zhejiang since the new year to 26, the most nationwide, according to the Zhejiang Provincial Commission of Health and Family Planning.

Human infections of H7N9 have also been reported in Jiangsu, Fujian and Guangdong provinces.

The southern province of Guangdong reported its third H7N9 death of this year on January 20.

Universal Education

The Chinese Government has vowed to ensure at least 90 percent of children with visual, hearing and intellectual disabilities will receive primary and middle school education by the end of 2016, according to a plan that was made public on January 20.

According to a 2014-16 plan on improving education for learners with special needs, the country will increase investment, build more infrastructure, train more quality teachers and reform the special education curricula.

Official figures show that compulsory education, which includes primary and middle school, only covered 71.9 percent of disabled children as of the end of 2012, compared with 99.5 percent of non-disabled children for primary schools and 98 percent for middle schools.

The three-year plan stipulates that disabled children should attend the nearest possible standard schools, special education knowledge should be incorporated into exams for teachers' certificates, and that higher education institutions should not refuse admission to students with disabilities.

Workforce Decrease

China's working-age population dropped by 2.44 million to 919.54 million in 2013, the second year of decline, the National Bureau of Statistics announced on January 20.

The working-age population, which covers those between 15 and 59, accounted for 67.6 percent of the country's total population in 2013, down 1.6 percentage points from 2012.

In 2012, China declared its first absolute drop in the working-age population in "a considerable period of time."

Those aged above 60 accounted for 14.9 percent of the total population to 202.43 million while those above 65 made up 9.7 percent.

At the end of 2013, the Chinese mainland's population stood at 1.36 billion, with a natural population increase rate of 0.5 percent.