Frontline diary from the “Square Cabin Hospital”: No meals or water for six hours, there is only time to fight against the virus.

On February 8th, just on the day of the Lantern Festival, the second batch of Yunnan medical teams entered the Wuhan Fangcai Hospital and began their work against the epidemic.

At five o clock in the afternoon, the day shift ended for the nurses, and they returned to the hotel. “We are a nursing team from Yunnan province. We came to Hubei to support Wuhan. Our support location is the square cabin hospital at the Wuhan International Convention and Exhibition Center. We just finished our first shift and our work assignments”, said the team members during the interview.

As soon he returned to his room, Cui Pengyu, the team leader, called a brief video conference to summarize the work of the team on the first day.

During the video call, we talked with other members of the team. “Now it is one o clock in the morning. Three of our nursing staff are taking their posts right now. We are also having a meeting with other colleagues in Guizhou. This is our temporary tent,” said the nurses.

Cui Pengyu added: “The square cabin hospital has two floors. There are thousands of patients there, all of which are relatively mild cases. Our medical team is responsible for the work of more than 300 people, and our main tasks include nursing, psychological assistance, monitoring of the patients, and others”.

The team adopted a shift system. The team members are divided into four groups, which work in 6-hour shifts. But the working time often exceeds eight hours. During their turns, the nurses are wearing very tight protective clothing, so they do not dare to drink or eat.

“It is very troublesome to take off our protective clothes. Sometimes it is complicated even to go to the toilette. This is a special Lantern Festival; all of us are working on the frontline. We hope to overcome the epidemic as soon as possible and come back home safely,” said Cui.