Du Yingrong, chief physician and master's degree graduate, is currently the Director of the Third People's Hospital of Kunming. He started to work at the hospital in September 1993. For Du, 27 years have passed silently, almost as a blink of an eye.

The COVID-19 broke out in Wuhan, and the epidemic quickly spread throughout the country. After the outbreak, the Third People's Hospital of Kunming was one of the designated hospitals for the treatment of COVID-19.

Du showed he was ready to confront what was going to happen because he has also struggled on the front line 17 years ago with the outbreak of SARS. At that time, he was the person in charge of the infectious diseases department of the hospital. His years of professional experience in the field of infectious diseases gave him a broad knowledge about SARS, avian influenza, influenza A and anthrax.

On this occasion, he timely took actions to protect the health and safety of both patients and colleagues.

Du Yingrong, during the fight against SARS.

Before the horn of the war sounded, Director Du convened a meeting to arrange the duties for the prevention and control work of the COVID-19 in the hospital. His plan included personnel training, equipment support, and set up of new working groups such as the expert group, medical group, nursing group, inspection group, and logistics supply group. All the pieces of this whole worked together to prevent and control the epidemic.

Meeting in the headquarters of the hospital

Director Du Yingrong been interviewed by the media.

On the front line, he was one of the white soldiers who faced the outbreak working day and night despite the imminent danger. His figure can be seen almost in every corner of the hospital. He was in the ICU diagnosis ward, guiding the treatment of critical patients, comforting patients in the isolation ward, and checking that the medical staff was using the protective equipment. Apart from that, he was doing his utmost to protect the safety of the medical staff and avoid cross infections.

In a stressful situation like this, Du's expertise came in handy. He coordinated the workflow, which led the medical staff to provide 24-hour medical treatment. This treatment also included psychological counseling to diagnosed patients. Without a doubt, this is a substantial psychological burden not only for the patients but also for the doctors and nurses. However, Du was always optimistic; he encouraged everyone around him while he was performing his duties. Du was also in charge of storing materials (disinfection items, protective clothing, and other materials), and he arranged everything to ensure the frontline needs.

  Du during the SARS in 2003

His family knows that he has made a lot of sacrifices for his work. They also know that he has little time to take care of them, but there was always support for him.

The harder the task, the more daring the pride; the more dangerous the place, the more heroic the battle. Director Du and many medical workers who are struggling on the front line do not dare to stop for a moment, and they are showing that they are baring the responsibility bravely.