国内英语新闻:China Focus: Dedicated services in Beijing's locked-down communities

BEIJING, Jan. 29 (Xinhua) -- As a new day dawned, Gao Xiaolin left behind her old identity as a fresh graduate and embraced her new role as an anti-epidemic frontline worker.

Gao, 23, entered the workforce in the subdistrict office of Tiangongyuan in Beijing's Daxing District on Jan. 18, one day after the first two COVID-19 cases were reported in the local residential community of Ronghui.

Having completed her registration, Gao was assigned to the community to conduct door-to-door inquiries.

"I was scared at first seeing personnel covered from head to toe to help transfer the close contacts to centralized quarantine," she recalled. "But as soon as I put on the protective gear, I felt a sense of responsibility."

Since the resurgence of sporadic COVID-19 cases in Daxing, nearly 2,000 subdistrict workers and volunteers have been stationed in the communities under lockdown, organizing nucleic acid testings, picking up garbage door to door, and providing home-quarantined residents with food, medicine and other necessities.

Nearly 30 locally transmitted confirmed COVID-19 cases had been reported in the district as of Thursday, mostly in Ronghui.

In addition to the close contacts who had been transferred to hotels for centralized quarantine, nearly 24,000 residents are currently undergoing home quarantine in Ronghui and four other residential communities of Tiangongyuan.

A resident in Ronghui told Xinhua over the phone that he and his family were caught uNPRepared by the epidemic with little food in stock. He had planned to shop for supplies online, only to find the delivery services had been suspended.

"It's the community workers who have helped relieve our worries," said the resident, who only gave his surname as Wang.

The workers solicit their requests via a WeChat group, make purchases and deliver the items to their doorsteps, according to Wang.

The community, with over 3,700 households in 15 buildings, has been divided into 17 grids, with personnel designated to each grid to distribute supplies.

According to the bureau of commerce of Daxing, suppliers of necessities had delivered 80,000 orders as of earlier this week, with some 15,000 orders delivered on average every day over the recent period.

"We sort the materials according to building and gate numbers, and distribute them immediately after disinfection," Gao said.

Shi Xiangyi, a doctor from a local hospital in Beizangcun Township, is stationed at a van used for mobile medical services. The vehicle stays at the community from 8:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. every day to provide medicine to residents with chronic diseases.

"We register the demand based on the prescriptions provided by the volunteers and pack the medicine for delivery upon its arrival," she said, adding that it usually takes no more than a day for residents to receive their medicine.

Li Zhonghua, executive president of the hospital, said the residents can call their family doctors if they need a consultation, and the medical bills of those with health insurance will be covered.

To minimize contact with people outside the community, Gao opts not to take public transport when she commutes every day. Instead, she asks her colleagues to give her a lift.

Her mother, a property manager of another community in Daxing, is busy with epidemic control work herself and supports Gao's work.

"Community work is tiring but meaningful. When the cold winter is over, we will embrace the warmth of spring," Gao said.