China’s top legislators and political advisors from the healthcare industry shared with media their personal experiences and thoughts about fighting against the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), which struck the emotional chord, during the ongoing 2020 two sessions.
The two sessions deemed as China’s most significant political event, consist of the plenary session of the National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s top legislature, and the annual session of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), China’s top political advisory body.
Medical staffer Luo Jie, a deputy with the 13th NPC, was the first to speak at a routine group interview before the opening meeting of the NPC’s annual session on Friday.
Recalling his grueling time at a hospital in Central China’s Hubei Province, the worst-affected region by the COVID-19 with over 68,000 confirmed cases, Luo mentioned about an 87-year-old critical patient who also suffered 11 other diseases, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
To treat the patient, Luo’s hospital arranged nine staffers consisting of doctors, nurses, a nutritionist, and a psychological therapist, who tried their best to take care of him during his 47-day hospitalization.
“We protect every life whole-heartedly,” Luo said, adding that Hubei has cured over 3,600 COVID-19 patients aged above 80, including the aforementioned patient.
Luo also spoke highly of millennial medical workers. He referred to seven male nurses aged 30 or below at his hospital, who often uninterruptedly worked for more than seven hours in isolation areas, and voluntarily shouldered additional responsibilities like cleaning medical wasteamid the pandemic.
“Millennials have shown with their actions that they are the future and hope of China,” he said.
A day earlier, the 13th CPPCC member Wang Chen, an academician and president of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, who proposed building Fangcang makeshift hospitals for COVID-19 patients in early February, shared his thoughts at a routine group interview ahead of the opening meeting of the annual CPPCC session on Thursday.
The fight against the epidemic embodies a characteristic of Chinese culture – a genuine respect for people’s life and health, Wang said. The high professional spirit and hardwork of the Chinese medical personnel make them a significant force that bolsters this fight, he added.
The remarks, related to the COVID-19 fight, of NPC deputies and CPPCC members at the two sessions group interviews impressed many citizens. Some said the stories brought flashbacks of the Chinese public, together with medical workers, tiding over the most difficult times.
Ysan (pseudonym), a Hubei resident who spent 68 days in the province’s Xianning city before leaving for Guangzhou in late March, said the remarks brought him a sense of benevolence.
He recalled a viral photo of a doctor and an 87-year-old COVID-19 patient watching the sunset together in Hubei’s capital Wuhan on March 5.
The photo and the stories shared at the two sessions, are all small fragments of ordinary life, infused with “warmth and humanistic care,” Ysan told the Global Times Friday.
Medical staffer Luo Jie, a deputy with the 13th NPC, speaks at a group interview on Friday (photo: screenshot of CCTV)
