United front puts city on road to recovery

Increased workload

Wang Mian, 37, a bus driver in Wuhan, was hoping to have a good rest during the Spring Festival holiday in late January, but experienced exactly the opposite.

Before the outbreak, Wang, who transports medical workers between home and Tongji Hospital in the city's Caidian district, mainly worked regular hours.

However, his workload increased suddenly after Wuhan was locked down.

With the number of cases in the city surging in late January, more medical facilities were assigned to solely receive COVID-19 patients, including Tongji Hospital.

"We became very busy two days after Spring Festival, when we were told to transfer all remaining non-COVID-19 patients－hundreds of them－to other hospitals across the city so that all the beds could be reserved for those with COVID-19," Wang said.

Over the next few days, he and his colleagues drove between the airport, residential buildings, hotels and hospitals to transport doctors and nurses. They also catered to more than 2,000 medical workers sent from across the country to help fight the virus in Wuhan. By the time Wang returned home, other members of his family were asleep.