Helping hands make life easier in Wuhan

Tian Ming, head of the neighborhood committee in the Fozuling B Community in the Wuhan East Lake High-Tech Development Zone, has also encountered problems helping residents buy daily necessities.

Since the start of the outbreak, the 29-year-old has worked shifts with other community workers to provide round-the clock services to residents, offering assistance with health problems or with buying daily necessities.

"There are 1,315 households in the community. When screening for infections, suspected cases and for those who have had close contact with infected people, we visit them door-to-door, taking their phone numbers, checking their temperature and noting whether they have any health problems," Tian said.

He added that his community is "smart", meaning that he can use his phone to contact residents easily and obtain information about every household.

However, complaints about Tian and his colleagues have occasionally been lodged by residents, who say the workers have failed to meet the different demands of so many people.

"We understand that when people are indoors for a long time, they easily become irritated and even panic when their demands are not met," Tian said. "To be frank, we are not happy about this, because we have worked very hard. But during such a crucial period, we comfort ourselves by saying 'be patient'."

Since the community lockdown was introduced, online purchasing has flourished, with supermarket platforms such as Zhongbai Cangchu, RT-MART and Carrefour promoting group purchases through online orders and dedicated deliveries.

When orders placed by residents arrive at the entrance to the community, Tian and his colleagues are responsible for delivering them to different addresses. "Generally, we place all the deliveries at the gate to each residential building to avoid a large cluster of people gathering in one place and to reduce the potential risk of infection," he said.

For those unable to easily access online shopping, Tian helps organize purchases of daily necessities through group buying.