Xi'an residents of all creeds join in pandemic fight

XI'AN－Sandrine, a French national living in Xi'an, an ancient city in Northwest China, decided to ring in 2022 in a slightly different way－volunteering for the city's pandemic control and prevention work.

The city is currently battling a COVID-19 resurgence, with more than 1,700 cases reported since Dec 9.

While authorities have taken strict measures to curb the spread of the virus, people in the megacity of 13 million－the natives, the migrants and the expats－have come together to meet the challenge.

Sandrine has been a resident of Xi'an for nearly a decade and is mostly known by her Chinese name, Wu Hong.

Before nightfall, she arrives at a nucleic acid testing site at the Northwestern Polytechnical University, puts on protective clothing, a mask and goggles, and begins her work.

Since the resurgence of the pandemic, more than 5,000 testing sites have been set up across the city, staffed by over 100,000 medics, community workers and volunteers.

"We have to work together to control the pandemic, and there is nothing more important than this at present," says Sandrine, who teaches calculus and other maths subjects at the NPU.

"As part of the school community, I feel obliged to join the fight against the pandemic," she adds.

"As a teacher, I should stand up and protect my students as well."

Though the campus is closed as part of pandemic-control measures, Sandrine's life remains the same; the only exception is that classes have moved online.

Watching students listen attentively and take notes on the other side of the screen, she is relieved to find that they have not been greatly affected by the pandemic and the closure of the campus.

She believes that it is necessary for Xi'an to adopt strict control measures.

"Not being free now allows for real freedom later. The pandemic should be brought under control as soon as possible," Sandrine says.

The university started recruiting volunteers on Dec 29, and Sandrine signed up straight away. To her surprise, her colleagues were also "jostling" to be volunteers.

"If you are slow, you may not get a chance," she says.

As a volunteer, Sandrine is tasked with scanning QR codes, checking information and handling test tubes, among other things. Even after more than three hours of volunteer work, she is not done.

She then heads to the west gate of the campus to help with security management.

After winding up her volunteer work at around 10 pm, Sandrine returns to her apartment and has a video call with her family in France.

"My family is not worried about my safety in Xi'an, for they know that China has done a good job in controlling the pandemic," she says.

Kwon Min-ho, from the Republic of Korea, is visibly impressed by the role that traditional Chinese medicine plays in battling the pandemic.

A student at the Shaanxi University of Chinese Medicine, 27-year-old Kwon noticed COVID-19 patients finding relief through TCM at the beginning of 2020.

"In addition to treatment, TCM can also boost the immunity in susceptible people and help in disease prevention," Kwon says.

His university is currently under closed-off management and classes have moved online.

The school has distributed pandemic prevention materials to the students.

"My fellow classmates take turns as volunteers to help maintain order during the pandemic. We have trust in the Chinese government's ability to control the outbreak and won't panic," he says.

"A college-age boy and his mother who are our immediate neighbors have also volunteered. Everybody is cooperating, nobody is complaining. Everything is just fine," says John Carmichael, a Canadian who works as a chief technical officer in a Xi'an-based cloud data company.

Carmichael believes that the best way to accomplish anything is through solidarity.