Patients at huge quarantine site recruited as volunteers
Patient volunteers pose for a photo with medics of Renji Hospital at the Shanghai World Expo Exhibition & Convention Center, which has been turned into a central quarantine site.
Patients at the quarantine center are eager to help as volunteers.
A volunteer team consisting of 180 COVID-19 patients at a huge quarantine site for people with mild symptoms and asymptomatic infections was launched on Tuesday, according to Renji Hospital, which recruited the team.
The volunteers will mainly help distribute food, contact maintenance staff if they detect equipment failure and do night patrolling.
The Shanghai World Expo Exhibition & Convention Center in the Pudong New Area covers a total construction area of 152,000 square meters. It served as the "Expo theme pavilion" during the World Expo 2010 Shanghai and is one of the five key permanent structures left over from the global exhibition.
It was turned into a quarantine site last weekend, with 840 medics from four local hospitals now working there.
According to Zheng Junhua, leader of Renji Hospital's medical team, the first section with around 2,500 beds and the second section of about 3,500 beds have been put into use.
"The third section with 1,400 beds will open for use tomorrow. Which means the whole quarantine site will have 7,500 beds," Zheng said on Tuesday.
The section under the charge of Renji Hospital now has 2,569 patients. Distributing food is a big headache for medics. Due to lack of manpower, some patients have to wait for a long time to get food.
Chen Min, vice director of Renji's nursing department, came up with the idea of recruiting patient volunteers, which found favor with many patients, who expressed a willingness to fight and work with the medics.
When the notice board for recruiting volunteers was put up in the H2 area, which is under the charge of Renji Hospital, many patients offered their help. The H2 area is divided into 17 regions, each of which recruited volunteers.
The team was fully organized within one afternoon on Monday. Each region has a team of about 10 persons.
They will help nurses hand out food, maintain order while distributing traditional Chinese medicine and help deliver life supplies.
"I signed up to join the volunteer team after getting the information," an asymptomatic patient surnamed Fu said. "Medical staff are very busy and hardworking. I want to help them."
Fu stated that he has shared his experiences and life at the quarantine site online via video-sharing platform Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, each day.
"The food and environment are both better than I expected. I use a smartphone to record the special experience and share it with others."
Another group photo of patient volunteers and medical staff.
A patient who was recruited as a volunteer.
An asymptomatic patient surnamed Fu records and shares his life at the quarantine site online through Douyin, a video-sharing platform.
A patient volunteer does night patrol at the site.
Dr Chen Erzhen, vice president of Ruijin Hospital and chief of the quarantine site, said each medic is working over 10 hours with protective uniform every day.
"The majority of patients are asymptomatic ones. There are only small quantity of mild cases, who are in stable condition," he told Xinhua news agency. "For those with underlying diseases like hypertension and diabetes, we will offer targeted intervention and treatment in line with the newest version of coronavirus treatment guideline."
"We are trying our best to provide patients a good environment. While some patients may complain that the quarantine site is not as comfortable as home. We will do renovation step by step. We have set up separation for every two patients inside the site in order to ensure their rest and protect the privacy," he added.
Concerning to patients' anxiety, the management team of the site has arranged professionals to conduct psychological guidance to help solve mental problems and stress of patients and medics.
He said all patients are undergoing management, the site has been renovated to meet the standard for infection disease prevention and control and all staff, including medics and supportive staff, have received strict infection-prevention training.
"All the work flow, construction, staff training and management are in line with the strictest disease prevention and control requirement," Chen said. "Separation with family member is temporary. We are confident that we will win the fight against COVID-19."
