Jilin gains control of COVID-19

For the first time in the past month, Liu Min enjoyed a morning run in his residential community in Erdao district of Changchun, Jilin province.

"As a marathon enthusiast, when community workers told us we could have some orderly activities outside our buildings in the residential community, the first thing I wanted to do was to have a long-distance run," the 63-year-old retired civil servant said on Friday.

"To cooperate with requirements of COVID-19 epidemic prevention and control, I had stopped my daily morning exercise several days after the recent outbreak started."

All parts of Jilin province hit by the recent COVID-19 outbreak－including Changchun, the capital－have now achieved zero-COVID status at the community level, based on comprehensive study and judgment of the latest mass nucleic acid testing results, officials said at a news conference on Thursday.

This means that the province has controlled the novel coronavirus after 45 days of hard work, said Zhang Baozong, deputy director of the provincial publicity department.

The local COVID-19 epidemic spread rapidly in Jilin after the first cases were reported in Hunchun, a border city in Yanbian Korean autonomous prefecture, he said.

Infections were reported in the cities of Jilin and Changchun in the following days.

As of March 11, the epidemic had spread to six city-level regions and a county. Community transmission also broke out simultaneously in Changchun and Jilin city.

The city of Jilin achieved zero-COVID status at the community level on April 8 after 37 days of effort and is now returning to ordinary life, Zhang added.

Traditional Chinese medicine was given to infected patients during their medical treatment in Jilin city, experts said.

"We made different plans for patients in different conditions," said Qi Wensheng, a doctor at China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences Guang'anmen Hospital. "For those in severe conditions, we gave specific treatment method for each."

During the process, medical workers also treated the patients' other diseases.

"We finished operations, such as hip replacements, for 14 infected patients in Jilin Central Hospital," said Kang Yan, director of Sichuan University's West China Tianfu Hospital.

Zhang Baozong said they will now strive to achieve the dynamic clearance of COVID-19 as soon as possible. "Local communities will be placed under different levels of control and prevention to gradually restore order to residents' lives," Zhang said.

A factory of Changchun-based automaker FAW Group resumed work on Tuesday. The group suspended operations at its five automobile plants in the city on March 13.

Under COVID-19 epidemic prevention and control requirements, the factory areas will be put under closed-loop management and all staff members should take daily COVID-19 rapid antigen tests.

The provincial government has dispatched a mobile laboratory with a daily capacity of 20,000 nucleic acid test samples to support FAW Group's resumption of work.

About 30,000 farmers who had been stranded in Changchun have been transported home under a plan to get plowing underway as of Thursday.

"When the outbreak started, some places in the city were covered with snow and now we can enjoy the fragrance of apricot blossoms in the early spring," said Liu Min. "I believe we can achieve the final victory in the fight against the virus in the near future."