On the evening of March 10, Yan Qiangsheng saw the last patient get on the pickup truck home, returned to the hotel where he and his fellow team members were temporarily living, thoroughly disinfected himself, and then finally made a phone call to his family to say he was safe.

(Photo/People's Daily Online)

Yan is a member of the guide group of a volunteer team in Jinyinhu neighborhood, Dongxihu district, Wuhan, capital of central China’s Hubei province, the epicenter of the novel coronavirus epidemic.

The guide group accompanied 15 patients who had made appointments with fever clinics throughout all their examinations from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on March 10 as it had done over the previous 20 days.

Known as the “warriors” of Jinyinhu neighborhood, the volunteer team was set up in late January to help patients with fever receive medical services.

In an effort to ensure that each patient in the neighborhood could receive timely and appropriate treatment, the volunteer team set up a dedicated guide group on Feb. 19.

The guide group escorts patients through various examinations in different departments of People’s Hospital of Dongxihu District, and then helps them get into vehicles that take them to different hospitals for treatment according to each patient’s diagnosis results.

Since they are in close contact with patients every day, members of the guide group have to wear protective suits the whole time, and often are unable to eat, drink, or go to the bathroom for more than 10 hours a day. Only after all the patients are picked up, they can take off their protective suits and finally get to drink and eat.

A few days earlier, the guide group received an elderly patient after 7 p.m. As they were waiting for the procedures to be completed in the hospital, members of the guide group chatted with the patient.

After learning that these volunteers hadn’t had a meal all day, the patient became extremely worried about them and insisted on buying food for them.

“We’ll wrap up work for the day after accompanying you through the examinations. Don’t worry. We’ll get to eat soon,” Dong Xingtao, a member of the guide group, reassured the patient.

“I guess we’ll get everything handled around 11 p.m. again, and we won’t be able to eat before midnight. In order to make the elderly patient feel relieved, I lied,” Dong said.

(Photo/People's Daily Online)

Yan was the first to ask to join the guide group, and is now its leader. As he doesn’t want his family to worry, he has never told them about the details of the job, but only tells them he has to work extra hours at his company.

Dong and his wife both work on the front line of the battle against the epidemic. They have sent their children to a relative to look after, and talk to them by phone every day.