Shanghai medics, families joyfully reunited after Wuhan assignment

Shanghai Renji Hospital held a ceremony to welcome the return of its 172 doctors and nurses who were dispatched to Wuhan, the hardest-hit region in China during the novel coronavirus outbreak, on Monday.

The four groups of medical workers, of whom the first contingent left for Wuhan on Jan 24, Chinese New Year's Eve, completed their 14-day quarantine at a hotel after returning to Shanghai and could finally be reunited with their families.

All the doctors and nurses from the hospital are affiliated with Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine and received the "Shanghai Jiao Tong University Principal Award" at the ceremony.

Six medical groups and 17 individuals who made extraordinary contributions were honored at the ceremony.

Xia Qiang, Party head of the hospital, said that he paid the highest tribute and appreciation to all the medical workers working in several Wuhan hospitals, including Jinyintan Hospital and Leishenshan Hospital, for their dedication to helping Wuhan and the city's people back on track.

"It's been 88 days since the first contingent from our hospital rushed to Wuhan for medical help. They exhibited excellent medical skills and scientific nursing to race against time and fight against the virus when the country and the people needed them the most," he said.

Zhang said that they felt so happy that all medical team members returned safely and achieved their goal of "zero infections" when they left for Wuhan.

"All the team members lived up to their ambitions and dreams of being medical workers to save lives and help people through their hard work," he said.

A book compiling the excerpts of the 67-day diaries of Zha Qiongfang, a doctor from the hospital's Respiration Department, who was among the first to be dispatched to support Wuhan on Jan 24, also made its debut at the ceremony.

The book is the country's first officially published diary written by a medical worker assisting Hubei province in the fight against the novel coronavirus.

A Vietnamese version of the book will be published soon and the hospital said publishers in other countries were interested in the book.

Chen Guoqiang, head of the Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, wrote in the book's preface that Zha expressed her deep feelings with simple words in her dairies. Her description of ordinary people, including medical workers, police officers, social workers and volunteers, allowed readers to have a large picture of China's fight against the epidemic through small perspectives, he said.