Volunteers make heroes in harm's way as Hong Kong battles raging epidemic

Reading on the pop-up message on his cellphone that Hong Kong recorded a daily new high of 140 COVID-19 cases, Joseph Chan was astonished and alarmed. It was the evening of January 23, a week before the Chinese Lunar New Year.

Chan remembered the city only reported 26 cases the previous day, and preparations were in full swing to resume the much-anticipated quarantine-free travel between Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland.

"I was instantly awake and all my fatigue was gone," said Chan, who has been fighting the on-and-off epidemic for more than two years as a leader of two local volunteer groups. They have helped over 1,000 households in need, including many elderly empty-nesters.

Within a month, the daily case numbers reached levels that were hardly imagined for the 7.5 million residents – Hong Kong had been kept relatively virus-free since the pandemic began. On Friday, the daily caseload surpassed 10,000.

Battle-hardened yet baffled by the rapid rise of the fifth wave of infections, the 26-year-old decided to keep carrying on their volunteer services and try to reach the vulnerable.

"On the first day of the Lunar New Year, Fu Shun-fang asked me if our volunteer work would continue amid such a serious wave of the epidemic. I thought about it for a while and said, 'Yes, but we have to protect ourselves and our volunteer work cannot stop,'" Chan recalled.

Fu, a housewife and a volunteer in Chan's team, promptly replied: "You have my support."

This week, they visited elderly caring centers to bring them anti-epidemic supplies amid chilly winter rain. While temperatures plummeted below 10 degrees Celsius, Chan and Fu, wearing protective suits and two layers of masks, could not help sweating as they unloaded cartons from the vehicle.

"While we are scared about this wave of the epidemic, the more severe it becomes, the more aware we are that there are still many people in the community who are in need of help right now," Fu said. "We are suppliers, troubleshooters, and nerve-soothers."

Chan said at the beginning, he had worries that his team members would be scared and that no one would want to keep coming out to volunteer amid the raging epidemic.

But when he sent tasks to the volunteer chat group, the enthusiasm of the volunteers swept away his concerns – helping hands always outnumber assignment needs.

Some volunteers, who could not go to the front line to deliver supplies, help establish channels to purchase traditional Chinese medicine of Lianhua Qingwen capsules and rapid test kits.

"At this critical moment, the medical personnel is doing their best to fight the epidemic, and our volunteers' efforts can serve as reinforcement against the epidemic," Fu said. "We pool our strengths to guard our loved ones and our home."

Volunteers assume roles as errand boys, psychotherapists, and maintenance workers as home quarantine and social-distancing measures have created manpower bottlenecks for the distribution of supplies and community disinfection.

As the volunteer work moves on in an orderly manner, there are more and more "new faces" in the team. "Some of the new volunteers are people we have helped before, while some approached us via our friends," Chan said.

The volunteer team is also receiving increasing support from all walks of life. More and more organizations and residents approached Chan's volunteer team, which has received donations of some 3,000 bottles of hand sanitizer, 5,000 masks, and 10,000 rapid test kits.

"The anti-epidemic power of one person is small, but the 'flashes of light' of countless ordinary people against the epidemic can converge into a 'star river' that outshines gloom of the epidemic," Chan said.