Table 1. Four categories of counties in mainland China and their goals and achievements for malaria elimination.

Category definition	No. (%) of counties (n = 2858a)	Goals by 2015	Goals in 2016–2020	Achievement of goals by 2015
Local infections detected in 3 consecutive years and annual incidence ≥ 1 per 10 000 persons for each year	75 (3)	Counties in border areas of Yunnan: annual incidence < 1 per 10 000 persons	Counties in border areas of Yunnan: no local infections detected by 2017; malaria elimination by 2020	Yes. Annual incidence in each county was < 1 cases per 10 000 persons
		Other counties: no local infections detected by 2015	Other counties: malaria elimination by 2018	Partly. Motuo county in Tibet (bordering with India) and Sanya city in Hainan in the tropics reported locally transmitted cases in 2015. Motuo county had ≥ 1 case per 10 000 persons for each year in 2011–2015
Local infections detected in the last 3 years and an annual incidence < 1 per 10 000 persons in 1 of the 3 years	687 (24)	No local infections detected by 2015	Malaria elimination by 2018	Partly. Donggang city in Liaoning province (bordering with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea) reported locally transmitted cases in 2015
No local infections reported in the last 3 years	1432 (50)	Malaria elimination by 2015	Maintaining malaria-free status	Yes. Passed the subnational malaria elimination assessment
Non-malaria-endemic area	664 (23)	Maintaining malaria-free status	Maintaining malaria-free status	Yes. Maintained malaria-free status

^a Only the counties of 31 provinces in mainland China are included in the national malaria elimination programme.

Note: The counties are categorized by the malaria incidence data reported in mainland China from 2006 to 2008, obtained from the Action Plan of China Malaria Elimination (2010–2020) and the National Notifiable Infectious Disease Reporting Information System in China.^3,5