Wuhan takes efforts to combat novel coronavirus at community level
By People’s Daily
Sanitation workers disinfect in a residential community in Jianghan district, Wuhan, central China’s Hubei province. (Photo by Li Changlin, People’s Daily Online)
Wuhan, the epicenter of the novel coronavirus in central China’s Hubei province, is taking every measure to terminate the spreading of the virus at community level.
The municipal government is requesting its neighborhood communities to conduct comprehensive investigation, send vegetables and medicines to those with trouble going outside, and remind those who develop a fever to timely examine at community medical and health institutions.
“Thanks to the thermometer and masks offered by the community workers, as well as their caring sent through the phone calls, the fever of me and my husband disappeared after about a dozen days, and we finally feel assured,” said Zhang Yuqin, a 57-year-old citizen from a community in Zongguan street, Qiaokou district of Wuhan.
Liu Derong, director of the neighborhood committee introduced that the security guards and volunteers in the community have screened a total of 25 people with fever, carrying out publicity work and disinfecting the streets.
They contact and monitor those with fever every day on schedule, and help community health service centers with the screening work. They also request those who stayed closely with the infected to isolate themselves at home. Besides, they are also releasing real-time information of the epidemic control and prevention on a neighborhood-based mobile application.
At present, the city is waging a war against the novel coronavirus, mobilizing all of its neighborhoods and communities.
In Huashan neighborhood of Wuhan’s East Lake High-Tech Development Zone, 33 Party cadres used megaphones on the streets to advertise the doggerels they made to encourage the citizens to frequently wash their hands, reduce the frequency of going out and wear masks.
In Lijiawan, Qingshan district, a fevered man was sent to the hospital by local police officers who used a wood door as a stretcher and took the man to an ambulance after carrying him over 1,000 meters.
Now, the city’s community health service centers are shouldering huge responsibility as the first checkpoints in the battle against the novel coronavirus, and most of the doctors are working hard to screen the fevered.
On the afternoon of Jan. 29, receptionists at the community health service center near Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Hongshan district were measuring the temperature for visiting citizens with non-contact infrared thermometers. They inquired the symptoms and contacts of those who had developed a fever and guided them to the fever clinic.
“To prevent and control the disease, all of our staffs canceled their holidays and are working on shift to guarantee the precheck for the fever clinic,” said Zhou Feipeng, chief of the Party branch at the community health service center.
Since Jan. 25, the center has received over 300 patients with fever. It also established a 7-member doctor team to visit the families in the community to avoid frequent “out-of-fear” visits to the center.
Besides, the center is also operating a hotline to teach the citizens how to self-isolate, on which Wu Min, head nurse of the emergency ward offers 24-hour services with her team.
According to Wuhan Municipal Health Commission, a total of 205 community health service centers in the city have established precheck clinics, enabling those with ordinary fever to receive treatment at community-level institutions. The precheck clinics will also make orders for the patients that need to be sent to fever clinics or designated hospitals for further examination.
By the dawn of Jan. 28, 2020, the community-level health institutions across Wuhan have received 19,202 patients, screened 4,441 patients with fever, and gave 1,460 patients treatment or guidance on home isolation.
