Military medics' frontline role fighting COVID-19

The contribution by the role models in the country's fight against COVID-19 was celebrated at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Sept 8.

The military medical team that helped Hubei province had done an excellent job in fighting against the pandemic in the most critical time, according to a report by the Xinhua News Agency.

On the night of Lunar New Year's Eve, 450 soldiers from the second, third and fourth military medical universities from the Navy, Army and Air Force formed three medical teams to support Wuhan, capital of Hubei province, the hardest-hit Chinese city in the COVID-19 pandemic.

Song Caiping from the Third Military Medical University could only grab a chicken wing at the family gathering dinner before she left for Wuhan.

At Xi'an Xianyang International Airport, the medical team from the Fourth Military Medical University were ready to set off－they came from multidisciplinary departments, including respiratory, critical care medicine and infection control and all the team members have experience in prevention and control of infectious disease.

All three teams arrived in Wuhan on Jan 24 and started to sort and count the medical supplies and organized training overnight.

According to Chen Hongwei, the political officer of the medical team from the Second Military Medical University, medical staff members signed up to join the team and "no one flinched". Even when he arrived in Wuhan, he still communicated with the ones who were not selected into the team and persuaded them to stay put to prepare for the next assignment.

More medical workers from the PLA joined. On Feb 2, 13 and 17, several military transport aircraft took off from Shenyang in Liaoning province, Lanzhou in Gansu province, Guangzhou in Guangdong province and other cities and landed at Wuhan Tianhe International Airport.

By Feb 17, more than 4,000 military medical workers arrived in Wuhan. Among them, the youngest was born in July 1999 while the oldest was about to finish their service.

Li Qi, a respiratory and critical care medicine specialist from the medical team of the Third Military Medical University, told Xinhua: "There is no need for mobilization as we have been ready since the first day we put on the military uniform."