Beijing plans to launch mass vaccination drive

Wang Zhen, director of the emergency department in Beijing Shijitan Hospital in Haidian district, said their early response in the initial phase of the epidemic effectively prevent nosocomial infections.

"Given the experiences of handling the SARS epidemic and other emergencies, we started to provide masks for every patient in early January as many of them came directly from the nearby Beijing West Railway Station and knew little about prevention measures," she said.

The hospital also dispatched medical workers to assist Wuhan, and other infectious disease specialty hospitals in Beijing.

"The first two nurses we dispatched to Wuhan were both born after 1990s. They fought on the front line for 60 days and did a great job," Wang said.

Wang also delivered a lecture on how to scientifically get regular treatment for those patients with chronic diseases but were afraid to go to the hospital due to the epidemic.