As the epidemic that has infected thousands sweeps across the country, villages are one of the weakest links in the chain of prevention and control, but the measures there are often some of the toughest and smartest.
JINAN, Jan. 29 (Xinhua) -- Village chiefs patrolling with loudspeakers, long alert banners hanging on walls, and cars blocking the roads, this is what many Chinese villages are doing in the battle against the new coronavirus.
As the epidemic that has infected thousands sweeps across the country, villages are one of the weakest links in the chain of prevention and control, but the measures there are often some of the toughest and smartest.
A man disinfects a vehicle at an entrance to Qianzhangjiazhuang Village in Jiangshan Town of Laixi City, east China's Shandong Province, Jan. 28, 2020. (Xinhua/Li Ziheng)
"Fellow villagers, please wear masks, wash your hands regularly and avoid paying New Year visits to others, a phone call is enough!" This message is broadcast three times daily in Li Village in Jiaxiang County, east China's Shandong Province.
Paying visits to neighbors and relatives and sharing New Year's greetings is a Chinese New Year tradition. It is preserved better in villages than in urban areas.
Wei Deli, Party head of Li Village, said that in order to prevent the spread of the epidemic this year, he urged the villagers to stay at home and launched a plan to block roads to the village.
Vehicles are parked in the middle of four roads in and out of the village, its population just 2,000 in number, as two to four village officials patrol the area around the clock.
At one road where a car is not wide enough to block the whole road, a villager even lent his own tanker.
"Villagers agree with these methods," Wei said. "Epidemic prevention comes first and foremost for everyone."
People inspect passengers and vehicles at Sancun Village in Jiangshan Town of Laixi City, east China's Shandong Province, Jan. 28, 2020. (Xinhua/Li Ziheng)
China, with around 40 percent of its population living in rural areas in 2018, has nearly 700,000 villages. Medical facilities in the villages are often not as advanced as those in the cities, and as migrant workers return home during the Spring Festival, the risk posed by the epidemic is high.
"At present, the prevention and control of the pneumonia situation is in a crucial period," said He Qinghua, an official with the National Health Commission, on Jan. 27. "We must give full play to the mobilization ability of primary-level communities, including rural communities."
Chinese villages are governed by village committees elected by villagers above the age of 18. The committee is an autonomous body that governs all of the village's public issues. This allows for more direct methods for mobilizing and informing local residents.
A doctor explains a leaflet on the prevention and control of the novel coronavirus to a resident at Tumen Village of Shuiquan Town in Zaozhuang City, east China's Shandong Province, Jan. 27, 2020. (Photo by Liu Mingxiang/Xinhua)
Loudspeakers, which were used to disseminate information in rural areas during the era of the collective economy in the 1960s and 1970s, have come in handy in the fight against the epidemic.
Shi Xijun, Party head of Yaojiapo Village in Tai'an City, Shandong Province, said he uses the loudspeakers to remind villagers of the newly released diagnostic and treatment plans and raise their awareness of the epidemic.
Many of these nostalgic methods have been circulated online. A video showing a village chief in Bozhou City, east China's Anhui Province using a loudspeaker to remind villagers in local dialect not to pay New Year visits has gained 1.59 million views.
"They (the measures) appear coldhearted, but in essence, they show care," read one comment. Measures initiated by villages are also trending on China's microblogging site Weibo, with over 500 million views.
A medical personnel inspects a driver at an expressway entrance in Tengzhou City, east China's Shandong Province, Jan. 26, 2020. (Photo by Song Haicun/Xinhua)
Apart from the loudspeakers, other conventional methods were also used.
In Shibuzi Village in Linshu County, Shandong Province, there are seven roads in and out of the village and it is difficult to patrol around the clock, so villagers suggested using stones and sand to build up a roadblock.
"These are all efforts that rural villagers are making to actively prevent and control the epidemic," said Feng Zijian, deputy head of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. "I believe they will all help block the transmission of the disease." Enditem
(Video editor: Zhu Cong; video reporter: Wu Feizuo.)■
