Calm response helps break infection chain

After noticing a close contact was confirmed to have COVID-19, a 34-year-old surnamed Zhang in Beijing calmly dealt with the situation until he was transferred to a centralized quarantine facility.

Two days later he was diagnosed with COVID-19, the 218th confirmed locally transmitted case since March in Beijing.

His quick and calm response helped the community where he lives return to normal operation after just 14 hours of lockdown management. His anti-epidemic approach went viral online and was praised by many netizens.

Zhang, from Jilin province, has worked in Beijing for four years. He lives in a rental flat in Beijing's Changping district. As an interior designer, Zhang often needs to commute between his company in Chaoyang district and clients' homes.

On the morning of April 22, Zhang and a coworker went to a client's home in Dongcheng district to discuss design details, but that afternoon he heard that his coworker had been in close contact with someone diagnosed earlier with COVID-19.

Then Zhang realized that he had become a secondary contact and decided not to return home to avoid affecting his roommates and other residents in his community. He stayed in a hotel that night to wait for further information.

The next morning, Zhang received a phone call and learned that other coworkers had also been diagnosed as having COVID-19, and so he had become a close contact. He then quickly checked out of the hotel and returned to his car, meanwhile informing the hotel's reception to seal his room, and not do the cleaning, but wait for the disease control department to disinfect it first.

He ordered takeout food online and asked his roommate to help him pack clothes. The food and clothes were all put on the roadside, where he could pick them up at a safe distance.

On April 25, Zhang got a fever and his nucleic acid test came back positive. The building he lives in was closed for disinfection at 9 pm that day. Disease control staff took samples from the residents and the environment overnight, finding that all of the results were negative.

After 14 hours, the building was relieved of temporary lockdown and the operation of the community returned to normal.

Zhang is currently being treated at Ditan Hospital, where his fever has gone and he is recovering well with no other symptoms.

"It is the responsibility of every citizen to stop the spread of the epidemic," he said.

Wang Songlin, Party secretary of his residential compound, said that Zhang accurately complied with Beijing's epidemic prevention and control requirements and played a crucial role in community epidemic prevention.

Zhang has a sense of responsibility and his calm approach to dealing with the infection has effectively helped cut the chain of infection, Wang said.