Wuhan Combs Communities to Leave No Patient Unattended
Wuhan, the epicentre of the novel coronavirus outbreak, is combing communities to ensure every confirmed or suspected patient is located and attended to as a senior official vowed to nail any official deserter “to history’s pillar of shame.”
A conference on epidemic control ordered the megacity with a population of over 10 million to make all-out efforts to locate patients confirmed or suspected to be infected with the virus, close contacts of confirmed cases, as well as patients with fever.
Once identified, these people must be treated or placed in quarantine in a timely manner, the conference said, adding that “no family or individual shall be neglected.”
City officials said checkpoints were set up outside every community and apartment building to measure residents’ body temperatures, while community workers and volunteer paid house-to-house visits to conduct checks.
Fever patients found in the process were escorted to community clinics, which would decide whether they should be quarantined at home or be sent to other isolation areas.
Police will step in if a patient refuses to obey quarantine rules and all persuasion fails, officials said. The citywide mobilisation echoed the call of Chinese Vice Premier Sun Chunlan, who stressed that the various prevention and control measures must be strictly implemented like in wartime.
While inspecting Jianghan District in Wuhan, Ms Sun demanded officials at all levels to prioritise the epidemic fight “as the most important and pressing task” and forego bureaucratism and practices of formalities for formalities’ sake.
Any deserter in the fight will be forever nailed to history’s pillar of shame, she said.
Over 20,000 residents are observing at-home quarantine in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei Province, which has been sealed off since late January to contain the spread of the 2019-nCov, according to the city government.
The city has since grabbed the nation’s headlines with the heroism of its medical workers and the great sacrifice and resignation of local residents during the unprecedented lockdown.
The latest community mobilisation, joined by legions of community workers and volunteers, is expected to lighten the burden of Wuhan’s hospitals, which were struggling to cope with the influx of patients and a lack of medical resources.
By Thursday, the province of Hubei had 22,112 confirmed cases of the virus, including 11,618 in Wuhan. The country had sent 10,596 medical workers into Hubei to assist the epidemic control, while local authorities said another 2250 medical practitioners were still needed.
“BLANKET SEARCH”
Community workers in Wuhan told Xinhua that in response to some residents’ fears of close contact during home visits, they are also using telephones and instant messaging apps like WeChat to contact local families.
“Our neighbourhood committee held an emergency meeting on Thursday evening and demanded that we do a ‘blanket search’ to know about the condition of each and every family,” said Zhu Xuan, a community worker in the Chang’er Community in Jianghan District.
Tasked with more than 100 households, Ms Zhu posted a questionnaire in a WeChat group, and residents continued to update their daily body temperatures. Meanwhile, she had been making phone calls since Friday morning to contact elderly residents who do not use the mobile app.
“Residents have all responded to our work with great understanding and cooperation,” Ms Zhu said. On Friday afternoon, community worker Gao Bo was seen speaking to a residential building in Caidian District through a loudspeaker, asking two families to write their conditions and contact numbers on paper and drop it out of their windows.