Unknown Heroes Efforts at the community level lay a solid foundation for China’s battle against COVID-19

On March 18, Wuhan, capital city of Hubei Province, the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak in China, reported no new infected cases for the first time. The heartening achievement was the result of the unremitting and joint efforts of all the people in the country. Among them, community workers have been an important strength.

During his visit to Wuhan on March 10, President Xi Jinping talked to community workers, volunteers, and residents, in addition to COVID-19 patients and medical personnel. He thanked all those working at the community level, calling their work the key to containing the disease, and spoke highly of the contribution of the people of Wuhan after the city, with a population of around 10 million, was locked down.

The positive trend in containing the disease could not have been achieved without the sacrifice, devotion, perseverance and hard work of the people of Wuhan, he said.

Another front

Jia Yumin never thinks of herself as brave. She was among the first batch of citizens in Wuhan to take protective measures. Following her husband’s advice, she wore a mask on her way to work, despite feeling out of place on the subway full of passengers who were yet unaware of how serious the epidemic could be.

Her family was busy with their own challenges at the time. Her father was in pain from a failed surgery and had come to Wuhan from her hometown in north China for more appropriate medical care. Her younger brother and his family had also arrived to help take care of the father. They were all stuck in Wuhan in her home when the city was announced to be locked down on February 23 to prevent further spread of the epidemic.

Anxiety arose among them as they learned that the city’s hospitals were flooded with patients desperate to get tested for the virus, so medical care for their father was difficult. In addition, the measures applied in their community to contain the epidemic escalated to the point where no entry or exit without a pass was allowed.

Yet, when Wuhan University, where Jia works, called on its employees to participate in the community service work to help prevent the community spread of the disease, she volunteered.

“We can’t all stay at home; some of us have to get out and do the necessary job,” Jia told Chinafrica.

A member of the management of the university’s School of Foreign Languages and Literature, she was appointed head of a five-member team. Their duties ranged from routine patrolling in the neighborhood and reporting problems to delivering food, vegetables or medicines to people in a residential area where many retirees of the university live.

An important task for them was to take care of the elderly, especially those living alone, who were among the most vulnerable in the city. One case they handled was a retired lady living alone who broke a leg. The team took her to hospital for treatment and returned her for recovery. They also helped to find a nurse to take care of her at home.

After joining the team, Jia chose to live alone in another apartment so that she would not infect her family if she got infected. In the first days, she felt lonely, and missed and worried about her family when she was off duty. It was her family’s full support that helped her overcome the low mood. Her team later expanded to 20 members as more colleagues volunteered to take part, which gave her more strength to do her work better.

The past two months have seen numerous laypeople like Jia join the fight against COVID-19 at the community level in Wuhan and across China. While doctors and nurses were saving lives of the infected, efforts in communities were essential to prevent the spread of the disease.

“Containment in communities is, in a sense, decisive,” said Zhong Nanshan, a renowned Chinese respiratory expert, in an interview with China Central Television.

Volunteer aid

While doctors and nurses were saving lives of the infected, efforts in communities were essential to prevent the spread of the disease.

The tasks were challenging for China’s 4 million community workers in 65,000 communities. They needed to know the health state of each resident in their community, identify possible patients and ensure to take appropriate measures, such as taking temperatures and preventing gatherings. In sealed communities, community workers needed to ensure a supply of daily necessities and respond to special requests such as buying medicine for patients with other diseases.

To reduce the workload and ease the pressure at the community level, aid was organized by government offices, public