Youth volunteers at forefront of Shanghai's COVID-19 fight

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More than 800 young volunteers in Shanghai have been organized to pick up and dispense medicines for residents under lockdown amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 872 volunteers recruited from members of the city's youth federation have been organized into three volunteer teams to pick up medicines at local hospitals, deliver them to the gates of local communities and gather information on residents' requirements.

They've delivered 8,573 medicines for locals, including some 2,700 formulas for special and emergency use, such as tumors, diabetes and mental disease, according to Wu Bin, vice chairman of the Shanghai Committee of the Chinese Communist Youth League.

"We'd like to pay high respects and tributes to these fearless and shining youth amid the COVID-19 fight," Wu told the city's daily press briefing on Wednesday, which is marked as Youth Day.

He said that local young people have been playing an active role in the city's pandemic prevention campaign.

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A young volunteer in the Pudong New Area, for instance, drove more than 200 kilometers into midnight to pick up the prescription for a patient in urgent need of medicines.

Another volunteer managed to purchase a box of special disinfectant wipes in time for the surgery of a patient waiting for bone marrow transplant.

More people born between 1995 and 2000 are serving as community group-buying leaders or building chiefs as well as arranging mutual help WeChat groups to assist their neighbors, Wu noted.

Some 19,000 university students are voluntarily offering online homework consultation or accompanying services for children of local medics who are too busy to take care of their kids as well as those being quarantined at makeshift hospitals or quarantine sites.

Young people are also donating vegetables, fruits, stationery and protection gears for over 3,200 local juveniles in difficult conditions.

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