Foreigners step up to help with 'grid screening'
Spaniard Eva Serrano quickly mustered eight colleagues to work as community volunteers after she heard about "grid screening" in her community.
"Grid screening" is a strategic pattern in the massive round of nucleic acid testing among local citizens launched by the city's government. It aims to curb the spread of the virus in affected areas with a higher risk of infection, where residents will be quarantined and complete two nucleic acid tests within 48 hours.
When it was the turn of her community on Yuyuan Road in Jing'an District, she didn't hesitate to step up.
"Everyone in society should be responsible for the prevention and control of COVID-19," she said, "I wanted to help medical staff."
Putting on a mask and protective gear, with a notice on her body, saying: "Please keep one meter in distance," she joined others to offer volunteer work at the Siming neighborhood on Friday.
"We have two main tasks: remind testers not to stand too close to each other and help them register a QR code for nucleic acid tests beforehand," she said.
At her urging, eight of her colleagues in a global high street fashion group, also applied to the volunteers.
Three of them worked with Serrano on Friday.
Spaniard Eva Serrano is doing her bit for the community during the pandemic.
Their working hours lasted for six hours, from 8:30am to 11:30am and from 1:30pm to 6pm, which has helped the community a lot.
"Being engaged in the prevention and control measures is a way to serve society," one of her colleagues, who requested anonymity, told Shanghai Daily.
"I hope that the pandemic will soon be ended and the society will return to normal."
According to the local Siming neighborhood committee, about 150 volunteers has been recruited within three days.
Zhang Haiyan, Party secretary of the neighborhood, said: "We are moved because 85 volunteers have registered within one day. They said it's a shared responsibility to curb the spread of the virus."
Meanwhile, local volunteers have also acted to help foreigners living and working in the city.
The Shimen Road No.2 Subdistrict in Jing'an is home to many foreigners as the area has a number of hotels, multinational companies and western restaurants. For them, the language barrier is a major obstacle to keeping them safe and healthy during the epidemic.
So, community volunteer Wang Yiwen, fluent in English, has come forward to explain the policies.
"Where can I register for my QR code?" "How long will it take to know my test result?" "Where can I check my result?" – These are common questions from everyone, she said.
The different operation interface in English on the Healthcare Cloud app and registration process by passport has made it more difficult to take nucleic acid tests, she added.
So, she has tried the whole process many times on the app to make herself more familiar with the system and give correct instructions.
