China Daily Global Edition (USA)
Acts of human kindness bring hope in challenging times
Couriers, community workers among those uniting to fight outbreak
Editors’ note: The novel coronavirus outbreak is weighing heavily on people’s lives and minds. But many are working hard to keep cities running and trying to spread a little happiness. Here, we take a look at their stories.
For days, the streets of Wuhan, capital of Hubei province and epicenter of the novel coronavirus outbreak, have been deserted. Buses and the metro have stopped running, and with the exception of a few taxis and private hire vehicles, the roads are otherwise eerily empty.
While the majority of residents have opted to remain at home, individuals such as Yuan Shuang are doing their bit to ensure that the city of 11 million people does not come to a complete standstill.
Yuan, a courier with Danniao Logistics, has documented his daily activities since the outbreak through his video blog, updating viewers about the situation.
He arrives at his warehouse at 6:50 am every day. The first thing he and his colleagues do is check their temperatures to ensure they are not running a fever.
At 8:30 am, Yuan starts to load goods into a minivan before transporting them to destinations across the city. The packages bearing yellow labels are essential supplies that need to be delivered first. Some 80 percent of Yuan’s parcels contain facemasks and disinfectants, while the remainder bear food and beverages.
At 12:45 pm, Yuan drives back to the warehouse to have lunch, a simple meal comprising a bowl of rice, pork and green peppers. Once he finishes eating, he immediately returns to work.
“I don’t feel that I am an ordinary courier. I now shoulder more responsibility than before,” he said.
“I want people to know that even when the city is locked down, we couriers are still here to deliver essentials. Although my colleagues often joke that they are scared to death, I know they will stick to their posts and we will all work together.”
Yuan said the company tripled their wages during the Spring Festival holiday, and many customers have offered them facemasks so that the couriers can protect themselves against the virus. Some clients have even given Yuan and his colleagues cash in red packets as a good-luck blessing.
“Everyone has received something. This makes us feel warm,” he said. “I feel my work is meaningful to the city at such a tough time. I have faith in Wuhan, and we will overcome this predicament together.”
Workers at logistics companies such as Best Freight as well as JD and Suning’s delivery branches have also been risking their health to transport supplies from outside Wuhan, according to a report by National Business Daily, which interviewed several couriers in the city.
Zhang Hao, a courier with JD Logistics, worked through the Spring Festival holiday. Zhang said he originally planned to return to his hometown after his shift on Lunar New Year’s Day, but after seeing the city was locked down, he decided to work to lend a helping hand.
“I just want to tell my wife and daughter that I’m fine here and I will come home after this epidemic has passed,” he said.
Du Jinlong, a manager at one of Best Freight’s warehouses in Yichang city, Hubei, told National Business Daily the company had formed a special fleet of trucks to transport medical supplies.
“My warehouse has sent 10 trucks, each carrying 100 boxes of facemasks, to Wuhan and surrounding cities,” he said.
“We know the situation is severe, just by looking at the heavy workloads. But I hope everybody can avoid panicking and work together to tackle this challenge.”
Yi Dong, general manager of Suning’s logistics branch in Wuhan, said his colleagues delivered 50 metric tons of disinfectant solution donated by neighboring Jiangsu and Anhui provinces to Wuhan. It will continue to transport supplies, such as computers and air conditioners, to the two special hospitals built to treat those infected by the virus.
“Our truck drivers literally live at the company now,” he said. “All of them are ready to take on assignments, no matter what time it is.”
Shanghai residents act
Residential communities in
Shanghai have been playing an active role in preventing the spread of the novel coronavirus.
For example, residents across the city have been taking part in daily patrols to provide updates and notifications about the epidemic to households, said Zhang Guangxing, head of the West Yan’an Road community.
“We are now facing a crisis and have to remain vigilant and take all possible measures to protect the community,” he said.
“A lot of residents are elderly and almost half of the population in this area are tenants, not homeowners.
“Our job is to ensure everybody is well-informed about infections and preventive measures, to learn about people traveling in and out of the city, and report any traveler who is from an infected region.”
According to Yuan Lihua, head of the Xinmei Community Center in Minhang district’s Xinzhuang area, such efforts are also being undertaken by workers from the city’s 4,000 residential and 1,000 village communities.
“Seven of us community workers have not taken a day off since Lunar New Year’s Eve,” Yuan said.
“Many people have now returned to Shanghai after the holiday, so there is more reason for us to stay alert.”
In addition to providing information, community workers are going door to door to learn about residents’ recent travel history and the people they have come into contact with, as well as helping the more than 8,000 individuals who are quarantined at home to cope with the situation.
One of the most recent tasks the community workers had was to contact travelers from Hubei who have been quarantined at a hotel since before Spring Festival. Zhang and his colleagues have also been helping this group buy daily necessities.
“We are aware of the risk of human contact, so we post messages on the electronic screens and gates. When we have to make home visits, we make phone calls beforehand and ensure we are dressed in protective gear.”
To help those quarantined remain cheerful, Zhang makes frequent calls to them to provide emotional support.
“I’ve done some homework and have decided to shortlist some local tourist spots so that when this is all over, these people can explore and enjoy Shanghai,” Zhang said.
Hospital requests
Doctors and nurses at Shanghai’s Ruijin Hospital are asking for media help in telling the public to stop sending supplies of food, which has flooded in since Lunar New Year’s Eve on Jan 24.
The hospital is one of those in the municipality designated to receive suspected cases of infection from the novel coronavirus.
Every day, a variety of food and drink has arrived, accompanied by notes such as “Stay strong Shanghai! Pneumonia is doomed to be defeated!” and “From ordinary Shanghai residents”.
The donations, which are piling up in an area of the hospital used by frontline medical staff members fighting the outbreak, include dumplings, pizza, spaghetti, hamburgers, eggs, cherries, coffee, fruit juice and even hairy crabs.
Medical staff members at the hospital joked that kind-hearted people were trying to ensure that they made up for the food they had missed during Spring Festival.
“Such kind actions from citizens have moved us, and more important, inspired us,” said Zhou Jianping, a chief doctor in the Respiration Department of Ruijin Hospital Affiliated with Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine.
For several days over the past week, dozens of cups of coffee have also been delivered to medical workers at the Central Hospital of Minhang District in the city, accompanied by messages such as “We’re grateful for your hard work” and “From ordinary residents nearby”.
Zhu Congying, a nurse in the Respiration Department, was one of the first to notice that food donations had been delivered to the hospital for several days running. “I feel very touched. I never expected to experience anything so moving,” she said.
She added that the manager of one restaurant was so impressed by food donation orders placed by residents on Lunar New Year’s Eve that he delivered the food to the hospital in person, as no express delivery services were available.
On another day, the hospital received nearly 100 cups of coffee with accompanying messages stating, “Angels in white, your hard work is appreciated.”
Zhu Fan, a publicity officer at the hospital, said all its medical staff members thanked people for their support, but had called for such deliveries to stop, to prevent unnecessary waste.
In addition to food, facemasks and leggings for nurses have been delivered anonymously by residents to the hospital.
News that a couple in Shanghai made 150 loaves and 13 kilograms of cookies and sent them to doctors and nurses at four hospitals before dawn on the second day of Spring Festival went viral on social media platforms.
A woman, surnamed Yin, said she and her husband, who own an Italian restaurant in Changning district, had the idea of making food for frontline medical workers on Lunar New Year’s Eve.
Yin said the couple just wanted to give their support to doctors and nurses battling the virus and to tell them that their efforts “will never be in vain”.
Many restaurants, which had been fully booked for the Spring Festival holiday week but later experienced cancellations as people avoided gathering together, sold off their stock at cost price.
Zhuang Yuan Lou, a restaurant on Gubei Road in Changning, set up stalls in front of its entrance on Wednesday to sell semi-cooked food to residents in the neighborhood.
The manager, surnamed Zhang, said, “We prepared a large amount of food to sell to residents at lower than market price, to avoid wastage.”
Many netizens praised Shanghai for being a “heartwarming city” and said they were looking forward to the safe return of medical workers sent to Hubei to help battle the outbreak.
More than 430 doctors and nurses from Shanghai working in the fields of critical care, respiration and infection have been sent to Wuhan hospitals to treat patients who are critically ill.
On Jan 28, Ji Minjiao, a nurse in the emergency intensive care unit at Renji Hospital Affiliated With Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, waved goodbye to her 3-year-old daughter before heading to Wuhan.
She also left a letter for her, stating: “Mama is sorry that she can’t be with you. Like many other nurses, mama’s job is to help as many patients as possible to be reunited with their families. When you hear news that the epidemic has been controlled and the battle with the virus has been won, that will be the time that mama will be ready to return home.”
The girl told her mother as she departed, “Mama, I also want to be a medical worker when I grow up.”
Ji said it was her mission to serve and she had no second thoughts about helping people in Wuhan.
I don’t feel that I am an ordinary courier. I now shoulder more responsibility than before, I want people to know that even when the city is locked down, we couriers are still here to deliver essentials. Although my colleagues often joke that they are scared to death, I know they will stick to their posts and we will all work together.” Yuan Shuang, courier with Danniao Logistics