The State Council's Work Safety Committee on Sunday urged authorities to strengthen supervision on the transportation of dangerous goods after a truck loaded with liquefied gas exploded on a highway in Zhejiang province on Saturday, killing at least 20 people and injuring more than 170.

The increased effort to strengthen safety supervision of transportation of dangerous goods, improve the joint law enforcement mechanism, and push enterprises to implement safety production responsibility to guard against and minimize major safety risks is a timely response, showing the authorities' determination to defend people's health and safety.

The novel coronavirus outbreak has impacted all industrial sectors. Therefore, there is a need to strike a balance regarding safety when resuming work and production. The more society feels a need to "race against time", the more it should try to avoid chaos. That is why both the central and local governments have repeatedly stressed the need to tighten the safety measures while promoting work and resuming production.

The accident indicates the centrality of safe production and how we must make efforts to plug any possible loopholes.

Reports say the transport enterprise operating the truck that blew up had in the past been given 10 administrative punishments, mostly for "failing to conduct comprehensive vehicle performance tests and technical ratings as required" or "failing to implement the production safety management system according to the regulations".

Whether the earlier "wrongdoings" are linked to the latest accident needs to be investigated, but it is necessary to realize the complexity and relevance of safety problems and enhance the responsibility for safety management in each link.

The explosion should be seen through the prism of the novel coronavirus epidemic prevention and control efforts.

Although significantly different in nature, both affect people's safety and lives.

So, whether it is epidemic prevention and control or production management in all fields, society needs to be more aware about the importance of safety, and it should extend to governments at all levels and the relevant departments to ensure effective improvement of the safety supervision mechanism.

Any thing related to people's lives should be treated as priority, leaving no room for negligence. Only by not overlooking even a tiny safety loophole can we eliminate all safety risks.