Lending a Hand

Hubei people return the favors as the province recovers from the coronavirus epidemic

- Hu Fan

On August 6, Wu Lei, a nurse at the Jiangsu Cancer Hospital in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province in east China, was reminded of the days he fought the COVID-19 epidemic with his colleagues in Huangshi, a city in the hardest-hit central province of Hubei. Early in the morning, he received a package of fresh grapes as a thank-you gift from Huangshi. “I am glad people there still remember us,” he said.

Wu was one of the 310 members of a medical team sent by Jiangsu to Huangshi on February 11. On that day, the number of COVID-19 cases in the city reached 874. The team members were assigned to five different hospitals and Wu was responsible for the allocation of supplies.

The grapes were sent by a rural cooperative. Villagers and volunteers picked 1,300 kg of the fruit the day before and shipped it to Jiangsu in packages. Wang Youwen, President of the cooperative, said it was a way to thank the medical workers from Jiangsu for their assistance. With their help, the epidemic in Huangshi was brought under control in mid-March and the cooperative was able to resume operation. “People here are very grateful to them,” he said.

Starting in January, over 42,000 doctors and nurses from across the country came to Hubei to join the fight against the epidemic. Thanks to their help and other external support, the province was able to quickly curb the disease. On April 26, the last COVID-19 patient in Hubei was discharged from the hospital in the provincial capital city of Wuhan. Since then, Hubei people have been looking at ways to return the kindness they received.

Medical aid