A woman in central China’s Hubei Province was detained for spreading rumors of a deadly bird flu outbreak, police said Saturday.

A post went viral on China’s biggest social network, WeChat, Thursday saying an outbreak of H7N9 human infection had attacked eight medical workers and some family members after a villager in the suburbs of Xiantao City came down with the epidemic.

The post caused widespread panic and police launched an investigation, only to find it was sheer fabrication.

A woman surnamed Chen surrendered herself to police Thursday night, saying she had fabricated the rumor and spread it on WeChat.

She was put in detention for five days starting Friday.

China has stepped up prevention of human H7N9 avian flu which has led to 87 deaths at least nationwide since January. In addition, 269 H7N9 human infections have been reported in China this year.

The latest case was reported in southwest China’s Guizhou Province on Friday. The patient, 45, was from Danzhai County in the Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture of Qiandongnan.

All close contacts were under clinical observation and no signs of infection had been detected so far, the provincial health and family planning commission said Saturday.

President Xi Jinping on Friday called for an overall national security outlook at a seminar in Beijing, emphasizing the importance of political, economic, territorial, social and cyber security.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, who heads the National Security Commission (NSC), presides over a seminar on national security in Beijing, capital of China, Feb. 17, 2017. (Xinhua/Lan Hongguang)

Xi, who heads the National Security Commission (NSC), presided over the seminar on national security on Friday. Premier Li Keqiang and top legislator Zhang Dejiang, the two deputy heads of the NSC, were present at the seminar.

After listening to reports by Public Security Minister Guo Shengkun, Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Yesui, Hubei Province Party chief Jiang Chaoliang, and Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Party Chief Chen Quanguo, Xi said national security has become more and more important in the work of the Party and the state, adding that national security work is all about the people’s interests.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, stressed that safeguarding national security requires the grasp of rules in the context of the great changes in the international order, and that the planning work must give priority to the prevention of risks.

National security planning must consider the general background that China is in a period of important strategic opportunity for development, Xi said.

“The overall direction of multipolarization of the world, the globalization of the economy and the democratization of international relations has not changed,” said Xi.

“No matter how the international situation changes, we must maintain our strategic steadiness, strategic confidence and strategic patience,” the president said.

He called for global vision in national security work, coordinating development and security, combining principles with tactics, and taking the strategic initiative in China’s own hand.

Xi called for enhancing a prevention and control system for public security, improving overall capability in social management, and solving problems and disputes at their roots.

Xi stressed efforts should be made to enhance security in fields including transport and production of hazardous chemicals and improve fire prevention and control so that major accidents do not occur.

A firm fence of cyber security should be consolidated, and efforts should be made to better safeguard cyber security and key information infrastructure, Xi said.

Xi said the development of core technologies should be facilitated and early warning and monitoring of cyber security should be strengthened, in addition to ensuring the security of big data.

Xi stressed the need to proactively shape China’s external security environment, adding the country must strengthen cooperation in security field and guide the international community to jointly safeguard international security.

Xi called for enhanced capacity building in terms of materials, technology, equipment, talent, law and mechanism to safeguard national security.

He underscored that it was a fundamental principle for national security work to adhere to the leadership of the Party, adding local Party leaderships must fulfill their national security obligations.

China is beefing up efforts to better manage diplomatic vehicles with the recent release of a new regulation.

The regulation, jointly promulgated last month by the Foreign Ministry and other several ministries, will for the first time control the total number of such vehicles, Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told a news briefing on Friday.

Applications for these vehicles will be approved individually and the owners are required to buy third-party liability insurance for an insured amount of at least 1 million yuan ($147,000), the regulation says.

The number of diplomatic vehicles has surged amid China’s opening-up, which has drawn a growing number of diplomats and larger staffs at international organizations, Geng said.

Under the regulation, new license plates will replace the old by May 1, Geng said. On Monday, the Laotian embassy received the first new plates. Previously, diplomatic license plates had the Chinese character for ambassador followed by numbers. Now the order is reversed, and the character is white instead of the former red.

The regulation allows ambassadors to register two such vehicles for private use. Other diplomats may register only one. Administrative and technical staff at diplomatic missions can register only one vehicle per household within the first six months of their terms of office in China.

Seven situations are listed in the regulation that would deprive the vehicle of diplomatic status. For example, a diplomatic vehicle loaned to someone who is not a diplomat forfeits its immunity privileges.

In addition, traffic violations will no longer be condoned as the ministries will closely oversee the purchase, use and traffic law compliance of these vehicles, Geng said.

The new regulation comes against the background of the long struggle to ease traffic jams in Beijing, where one-fifth of the more than 4 million vehicles in the city are restricted from the roads between rush hours on work days, said Sun Lijun, a professor of transportation at Tongji University in Shanghai.

Moreover, the recurrent smog in northern China has government promoting policies that limit emissions and help to improve air quality, he added.