Younger generation boosts COVID-19 battle

Having viewed many posts about Ruili, Yunnan province, on Douyin, a short-video app, Qin Yao saw the city as a wonderland of exotic culture based around the Dai and Jingpo ethnic groups, immersive carnivals and festivals.

"I heard that people wandering around the city might accidentally find themselves stepping into a village in neighboring Myanmar," the 21-year-old said of the posts she saw on the app, which is known in the West as TikTok.

"It sounded fascinating, so I always wanted to visit the city."

In the event, she visited Ruili earlier than she had planned, but not as a tourist.

Right after she graduated from a vocational college for health studies in late June, Qin arrived in the city as a healthcare worker on the front line of the COVID-19 battle.

Ruili, hemmed in by Myanmar on three sides, shares a long border that has few natural barriers. For decades, residents on both sides have been in close contact, with about 50,000 border crossings a day before the outbreak.

Amid the raging pandemic, the city's proximity to Myanmar has pitted it in a tough and protracted battle against the novel coronavirus and COVID-19.

'Qualified and needed'

When Qin arrived, the city was combating its third outbreak－the first triggered by the highly transmissible Delta variant.

"I was hunting for a job and found that the city was recruiting healthcare workers to fight the virus. I figured that as a newly graduated healthcare worker, I would be qualified and needed here, so I quickly sent off an application," said the native of Yunnan's Dali Bai autonomous prefecture, about six hours' drive from Ruili.

"I didn't tell my parents that I was heading for Ruili until right before I got on the bus," she said.

"Even then, I told them that I would not be in close contact with confirmed patients and would only assist with ancillary work."

In reality, she had been employed to undertake a wide variety of jobs, from treating the open wounds of people undergoing quarantine, to sanitizing rooms and helping to transfer patients.

"The first time I knew that a patient I had helped at a designated hotel had later tested positive for the virus, I did not sleep well for two nights," she said. "Now, I am more confident because I know that the risk of infection is very low if people abide strictly by all the personal protection regulations."

Before entering quarantined areas, Qin received a week's training provided by experts in the prevention of hospital-acquired infections. As knowledge about the virus continues to grow, such protocols are constantly being refined.

Qin said at least 10 of her classmates came to Ruili after graduation.

Youthful advantages

"Though we are less experienced and appear a little youthful, our advantage is that we are faster at learning new skills and more adaptive to new environments," she said.

She added that she is now working at the city's largest centralized isolation facility.

Duan Xinghai, head of the facility, said it was put into use on Aug 27, and by the middle of last month, it had received nearly 4,600 patients.

In Ruili, a large group of young people like Qin is committed to fighting the virus.

For example, Li Long has been conducting patrols along a 300-meter section of the border in Ruili's Shunha village for more than a month. He volunteered to become a patrolman in September.

"It is the first time I have come to Ruili and the first time I have been so close to my country's border," the 22-year-old livestock farmer said.

Challenges abound along the stretch of border that he and three peers guard day and night: the temperature plummets at night; mosquitoes and flies irritate the patrolmen as they sleep; and snakes hiss in the dark.

Li said he is undaunted and never bored. "I am unable to express just how proud I am and how much responsibility I feel on my shoulders," he said.

For Zhao Suying, joining the fight against the virus meant abandoning her specialty in rehabilitative medicine and playing a number of supporting roles at the hospital, such as managing the storage of medicines and antivirus materials, and delivering meals and medication to wards.

"Frankly, I questioned the significance of my role and felt menial from time to time," the 26-year-old said. "But I have come to realize that amid an outbreak, no position is insignificant."

In 2016, she graduated from the Yunnan University of Chinese Medicine in Kunming, the provincial capital. Since then, she has worked at the Chinese Medicine and Dai Ethnic Medicine Hospital, a designated center for COVID-19 patients in Ruili.

Since last year, different groups of medical aid teams from other parts of China have been stationed at the hospital. Whenever there are personnel changes, Zhao helps to familiarize the newcomers with the hospital setting.

"These experiences have shaped my personality and made me a tougher soldier against the common enemy－the virus," she said.

Sometimes, she becomes wistful, especially when she recalls how lively and exuberant Ruili was before the epidemic. "The city and its people have made many sacrifices to combat the virus," she said.

Ma Jiansong, the hospital's president, said nearly half the medical workers there are young people like Zhao. "They are energetic and hardworking. During the epidemic, they have learned a lot from medical aid experts and have grown up quickly," he said.