BEIJING, March 1 (Xinhua) -- China has issued regulations to improve emergency response to work safety accidents.

The State Council will be in charge of the overall national task, while local governments at county-level and above are responsible for local emergency response to work safety accidents, according to the regulations issued by the State Council and made public on Friday.

Governments at various levels, relevant departments and enterprises should work out emergency response plans and disclose them to the public and employees, according to the regulations on emergency response to work safety accidents.

The regulations also emphasized emergency rescue, requiring production and business units to initiate emergency response plans immediately, take rescue actions and report related information to regulators in case of safety accidents.

Emergent measures must be taken to rescue people under mishap, treat the injured, take measures to prevent the accidents from deteriorating and report the accidents to higher authorities, according to the regulations.

Local governments are allowed to set up on-site offices to guide emergency rescues.

The regulations will take effect on April 1.

China's work safety conditions have been improving in recent years. The number of total work safety accidents, big ones and serious ones, fell in 2018.