China
2020.02.09 20:00 GMT+8

Community workers push to find suspected and confirmed cases

Updated 2020.02.09 22:04 GMT+8
By Tang Bo

China's National Health Commission says the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in China have surpassed suspected ones. As the epidemic becomes more serious, Wuhan's provincial government is ordering community workers to identify suspected cases and make sure they are isolated in health facilities as soon as possible.

We follow a community worker on a door-to-door screening mission to try to identify suspected and confirmed cases.

Many residents are compliant with the request. But some are reluctant to have contact with outsiders who could themselves be carrying the virus.

Li Xiangxiang, a community worker at the Zhongxing Community, told us that some residents don't want community workers to drop in, in which case they can instead report to the community through social media.

This online reporting system is affiliated with WeChat, the most popular networking app in China. It saves a lot of time compared to the door-to-door approach and reduces the risk of cross-infection.

The community workers are also calling in on every single resident to check their temperature.

All the information collected will be reported to local health authorities, who take over from there.

The community also responds to any complaints they receive about restricting information about the epidemic in the neighborhood.

Li said some people have called in to ask who's infected. They can not tell them as they must protect the privacy of others.

But the community has made improvements by issuing detailed information on suspected and confirmed cases, including the number of cases and the buildings where the cases are.

The Hubei provincial government says all confirmed cases which have been put under home quarantine must be moved to hospitals or other isolation facilities as soon as possible.

(Cover photo: Community workers in Wuhan's Zhongxing Community are calling in on every single resident in the neighborhood to check their body temperature. /CGTN Photo)

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