Salute to front line women fighting against virus

Guangzhou’s Nansha district sees many female medical staffs fighting in the battle against the COVID-19 (novel coronavirus pneumonia) epidemic.

Feb 26 was the birthday of Li Jiang, director of the district’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention. It was also the 35th day she had been fighting on the front line of the anti-virus battle.

As of this month, she arranged eight confirmed cases, tracked 109 close contacts, and helped 4,500 workers of local enterprises finish health check-ups.

“We must be careful not to omit any clues, and cannot allow the epidemic to expand further in the district,” Li said.

She believes that  her fellows on the clinical front-line are under great pressure. As long as everyone spares no efforts on the epidemic prevention and control, there will be fewer confirmed cases, which would be the strongest support for them.

Under Li’s leadership, Nansha’s epidemic was well-prevented and controlled, with its number of confirmed cases second lowest in Guangzhou. Their efforts have been highly appraised by the municipal government.

The First People’s Hospital of Nansha District, as a clinical medical observation hospital for COVID-19 infection, opened 24 beds for quarantined patients at the very beginning of the outbreak. And a special infectious department was under construction.

As the person in charge of the ICU’s nursing services, Guo Yanfen modified the wards, prepared materials and scheduled training of the department’s staff members in the isolation area.

In less than a week, the infectious department was set up. It consisted of three doctors and seven nurses. The ward was also renovated and opened with 40 beds.

Lin Qiaohe is an outpatient doctor in the local health service center. During the outbreak, she has to give consideration to both anti-epidemic efforts as well as the routine duties, and ensure the quality of medical services.

On the morning of Feb 12, Lin received an on-site service call from the family of a bedridden patient suffering from stroke. Lin and her colleagues hurried to the patient’s home and offered medical treatment including monitoring of vital signs and replacement of gastric tubes.

The medical workers keep in their minds the responsibility of healing the wounded and rescuing the dying. They said: “Prevention and control are important, but so is taking care of other patients.”