Valiant medics rise to new challenges

Peng said her team has remained united in fighting COVID-19. Due to different outbreaks, they have often had to work under closed-loop management systems and had to stay in a hotel. However, there have been no complaints from the team members or their families.

Peng said the team members once stayed in a hotel, where they lived on a monotonous diet, and no delivery services were available.

"Patients were testing positive every day. At that time, we were not allowed to have any infections in the hospital, but you can imagine the pressure we were under," she said.

Peng said she is moved by her teammates. "When their symptoms eased after they became infected, they all asked to return to work as soon as possible," she said.

She expects the next six months to be tough, but she is prepared to face the difficulties with her team.

When the situation returns to normal, Peng wants to enjoy life on the coast with her colleagues, as they did before COVID-19 emerged.

"Work should be combined with rest. These past three years have been all about COVID-19, all about work. I have never left Dalian," she said.

Peng also dreams about taking a vacation overseas — for example, visiting Europe for two weeks.

"However, the maximum amount of time I can take off is one week, due to my work. Maybe I can only fulfill my dream after I retire," she said.

Xia Yangyang, 35, a doctor in the nephrology department at Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital, a leading hospital in the Jiangsu provincial capital, said the institution was fully prepared for its doctors and nurses to become infected with COVID-19.

However, the number of medical workers who contracted the disease still exceeded estimations.

"Infected medical workers could call in sick, and many of the doctors who weren't infected were asked to assist at the fever clinic," Xia said.

The clinic has been flooded with patients recently, and Xia is now helping his colleagues there.

He said: "One of my colleagues who assisted at the fever clinic became infected and developed a high fever. I also experienced fatigue and body aches after treating some patients."

Xia tested positive for COVID-19 on Dec 15, but he continued to work at the fever clinic because his temperature was not that high. He now works throughout the day to help ease the burden the clinic faces.

"My symptoms have abated in the past week, but I feel exhausted due to a lack of rest," Xia said.

At Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital, as of Tuesday, about half the doctors and 60 percent of the nurses could not go to work, as they had COVID-19. Medical workers developing symptoms outnumbered asymptomatic cases.

The hospital has urged doctors and nurses with light symptoms to continue working, and has asked all its employees to help at the fever clinic. It is doing its best to normalize urgent surgeries and prevent patients from becoming infected.

Special zones have been set aside in wards and operating rooms for infected patients and doctors. Doctors who have become infected have been operating on patients with COVID-19 to guarantee prompt and effective treatment while reducing the infection rate.

To care for medical workers, the hospital has introduced measures such as providing quarantine rooms, along with free meals, toiletries and psychological counseling.

Some hospitals in Nanjing have also launched COVID-19 consulting clinics on the internet to reduce the number of patients visiting them for treatment.

Patients only need to register on the hospitals' apps or through WeChat, consult the doctors, and obtain their prescriptions. The hospitals can also mail them medication on request.

The online hospitals have been enthusiastically welcomed.

For example, the number of patients at the online hospital launched by Children's Hospital of Nanjing Medical University has risen by 25 percent every month since October. The hospital has asked its doctors to respond quickly to ease patients' anxiety.