People’s Daily
Community is basic for epidemic prevention and control. Recently, staff members of various urban and rural communities in China have taken actions to strengthen joint prevention and control, provide timely door-to-door guidance, and strictly prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus epidemic.
In recent days, community doctors in Beijing have been on a new task – to make phone calls to people coming back from the epicenter Wuhan, learn about their information and offer health guidance to them.
“For those we couldn’t contact though phone calls, we tried to obtain their other contact information from the police stations or the communities they live in,” said Zhao Menghan, a healthcare doctor from Jinsong community healthcare center in Chaoyang district, Beijing.
So far, the healthcare center has got in touch with about 270 people from Wuhan and provided health guidance for them. Li Yongjin, director of the center, said to prevent the epidemic from spreading, Jinsong community strictly practices pre-examination triage and adheres to the model that the physician who treats the patient from the very beginning has primary responsibility for the patient’s care throughout the treatment.
For suspected and confirmed cases, the center has strengthened screening and isolation treatment, enhanced monitoring and standardized relevant procedures.
Changsha in central China’s Hunan province has deployed community keepers to inspect and control the spread of the epidemic in suspected areas. Xiang Hongbing, secretary of the Party branch of a residential area in the city, said that cadres of the community, community assistants, and volunteers are all on guard to intensify inspection.
In the end, they spotted 36 households in the community that needed to be isolated. During isolation, all the daily necessities for these households were offered and delivered to the isolated by the community workers.
On Jan. 20, Xiao Xiangxiu, a resident of the community went to visit her relatives in Wuhan and returned home two days later. When she noticed the publicity posters of her community the following day, she reported her information to the community.
“Though I’m isolated at home, I’m supplied with adequate daily necessities and taken good care of by the community staff. Sometimes I would like to spend the time talking with a friend in my community through video chat,” Xiao told People’s Daily, adding that she is now an online publicity agent of her community, helping the latter dispel rumors.
The demand for protective masks soars on fears of the epidemic. How to deal with used masks to avoid secondary pollution is a tricky problem. A residential community in Zhengzhou, central China’s Henan province has installed a yellow trash can to collect used masks. Residents need to put the masks in a plastic bag before throwing them into the can. When the masks are inside the can, an inspector will disinfect the can. In about one hour, a truck will stop there and two people wearing blue protective suits and masks will load the discarded masks on the truck and then transport them to a recycling station.
The recycling personnel are responsible for only designated areas in order to avoid cross-infection, according to Lv Chunlin, head of a garbage classification office of a district in the city. In the district, there are a total of 758 recycling stations that have collected 3,288 pieces of discarded masks and 10,866 containers wrapping cleaning and disinfection waste since Jan. 28.
On Jan. 27, Zhengzhou issued an emergency notice requiring that special garbage containers be installed in residential communities, government agencies, and institutions to collect discarded masks.
The discarded masks are collected and transported by special vehicles, and they must not be mixed and compressed with other garbage at the garbage transfer station. After classification, the discarded masks are transported to the incineration power plant for harmless incineration.
A few days ago, Chen Lin, a member of the ecological civilization committee and Shi Aiping, a member of the environmental protection committee of Zhangdai village in Jiangyan district, Taizhou, east China’s Jiangsu province visited the village clinic to publicize standardized disposal of medical waste.
They said the disposal of medical waste is the last line of defense for epidemic prevention and control, and the waste must be collected and disposed of in accordance with regulatory requirements.
There are a large number of returnees in rural areas during the Spring Festival, and many remote villages are the key areas and vulnerable spots of epidemic prevention and control.
At the beginning of 2017, Jiangyan district established China’s first village-level ecological civilization committee and environmental protection committee.
Against the backdrop of severe epidemic prevention and control, the district made full use of their the grassroot members who are familiar with local conditions, and over 500 members have been mobilized to join the epidemic prevention and control.
In the past few days, these people visited the village and community clinics on a regular basis to urge and remind medical staff to properly manage and dispose of medical waste, in a bid to prevent secondary pollution.
