Their distance from the virus is only 2 millimeters - remember the "virus catcher" who sticks to the front line of the fight against the epidemic

Hohhot, 2 Nov (Xinhua) -- Xinhua News Agency reporters Zhang Honghe, Wang Jing, and Wei Jingyu

Stopping the COVID-19 pandemic is a race against the virus. Recently, in the Ejin Banner of the Alxa League in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, there was a group of "virus catchers" who were racing against the clock to fight the epidemic. They have nucleic acid detection and sampling personnel, as well as laboratory testing personnel, and carried out 8 rounds of screening for more than 40,000 people overnight, just to find and block the spread of the virus at the first time. They are the first line of defense to detect and intercept the virus, and the closest distance to the virus is only two layers of latex gloves.

At 2 a.m., after 6 hours of continuous nucleic acid testing and sampling, 32-year-old Lu Meisi seized the time to catch up on sleep. But just after sleeping for more than an hour, the mobile phone rang again: "Xiao Lu, now I have begun to sample key groups of people, there is a shortage of manpower, you hurry over." "I'll rush over right away!" After hanging up the phone, Lu Meisi immediately picked up his spirits and returned to his intense work.

Such a busy rhythm, Lu Meisi has been insisting on it for 15 days. She is a doctor at the Dongfeng Town Center Health Center in Ejin Naqi. On October 18, an epidemic occurred in Ejin Naqi. Qili organized medical and health personnel from Various Sumu Townships such as Lu Meisi to devote themselves to nucleic acid testing and sampling work for all employees. Ejin Banner has more than 30,000 residents, plus nearly 10,000 tourists stranded here, more than 40,000 sampling tasks, the first time fell on Lu Meisi and colleagues.

"Initially, due to the sudden arrival of the epidemic and the shortage of manpower, everyone was busy. At its busiest, my colleagues and I had to sample more than 300 people each day. After that, the support forces arrived one after another, and we only relaxed a little, but now we still have at least 200 people per person per day. Lu Meisi said that everyone knows that the new crown virus is hidden in the throat and nose, and the farther away it is, the safer it is, but everyone does not want to retreat, "everyone wants to quickly pull out the virus and block the spread of the virus."

Sampling is only the first half of nucleic acid testing, and the second half is laboratory testing. In the mobile PCR laboratory of Bayannaoer City, which was driven 600 kilometers away to support the fight against the epidemic in Ejina banner, Li Ting, deputy director of the laboratory department of Bayannaoer City Hospital, and four colleagues shuttled back and forth in a 30-centimeter-wide aisle, intently testing each sample. Unlike the samplers who can "put their skills to work", the operating space of laboratory inspectors is very small, which tests their flexibility.

"We needed to open the lid of the sample sampling tube and perform a series of operations such as aspirating the sample liquid, extracting and purifying the sample. In this process, sometimes the closest distance between our examiners and the new crown virus is only two layers of latex gloves, that is, 2 mm. Li Ting said, "Nucleic acid testing work does not allow us to be afraid." ”

Li Ting described nucleic acid testing as a race against the virus, "we must be faster, faster, faster, serious, serious, and more serious, and the first time to feedback the accurate test results to the Ejina banner new crown pneumonia prevention and control work command, for them to make timely decisions." To this end, Li Ting led a team of 10 people, including her, to carry out laboratory testing in two groups in shifts, each group worked continuously for 12 hours, and the team tested 3,000 samples in a single day.

Since the emergence of the new crown pneumonia epidemic in Ejin Naqi, the local government has carried out 8 rounds of nucleic acid testing for all employees, and each round of testing is inseparable from the hard work of "virus catchers" such as Lu Meisi and Li Ting. From sealing and control management to home anti-epidemic to the transfer of tens of thousands of people, every major decision of Ejin Naqi's fight against the epidemic is inseparable from the scientific and accurate test results of nucleic acid testing personnel. When others think that the new confirmed cases are "bad news", they think it is "good news", because only by locking the source of infection can the virus transmission path be better cut off.

In recent days, Li Ting's tightly locked brow has begun to stretch, and the big stone in her heart is falling to the ground. Because, in the work of these days, she and her colleagues found that the nucleic acid test results of Ejin Naqi have a good momentum. At the end of a day's work, Li Ting made a video call to her husband who was far away in Bayannaoer City in the middle of the night, looking at her 6-month-old daughter, Li Ting thought: "Mother will soon go back..." (Li Ling, Ningxia Channel, People's Daily client)

Source: Xinhua News Agency