Technicians conduct a quality evaluation in a lantern-making enterprise founded in Longtou Village, in Beijing's outer suburbs of Daxing District(XINHUA)

In the summer heat of June, villagers and village committee officials in Longtou Village have been taking shifts day and night to monitor public health. All entries and exits of the village, nestled in Beijing's rural outer suburb of Daxing District, are registered, along with regular temperature checks and monitoring of residents' and visitors' Health Kit mini-programs on WeChat.

At the critical moment in the fight against the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), the Longtou Village Branch of the Communist Party of China (CPC) has become the backbone of the villagers' epidemic prevention, ensuring the health of villagers.

Longtou Village is close to Fengtai District, which is home to the Xinfadi Market. Since a new wave of COVID-19 hit Beijing on June 11 with the market at its epicenter, Longtou Village Party Branch officials have been facing especially tough challenges in the application of prevention and control measures.

Together with other village officials, Longtou Village Party Branch Secretary, Liu Zongyong reacted quickly and took prevention and control measures. The group decided to establish a village lockdown and asked all village residents if they had visited Xinfadi Market.

"We needed to investigate quickly as some village residents pass Xinfadi on their way to work, and some elderly residence visit the market to buy groceries," Liu said.

On June 11, village cadres visited all households in Longtou Village within 6 hours and found a total of 35 residents who had either visited or had contact with people who visited Xinfadi Market. The cadres took the 35 residents for immediate nucleic acid testing, asked them to stay indoors for observation, and assigned a team of specialized staff to provide any assistance they may have needed during their isolation.

The Longtou Village Party Branch is just one of over 4.6 million primary-level Party organizations, comprising 90 million Party members, that have taken swift action to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus since the virus hit China earlier this year. Cooperation between cadres and other residents in Longtou Village has helped ensure the health and safety of the village, which so far has not reported a single case of COVID-19.

"Since January when the epidemic first emerged, my fellow village carders and I have never left the entrance of the village unattended," Liu said, adding that during busy periods as they managed exits and entries, and helped residents obtain passes, they sometimes even missed meals.

At first, a small number of villagers didn't understand the necessity of all these measures, and felt them troublesome. "Some villagers intentionally resisted wearing masks. We had to tell them and make them understand that it was for their own health and the safety of their families," Liu said.

The village Party branch also made an emergency contact list in case unforeseen issues were encountered by villagers. The list included the contact numbers of village carders, the drinking water sales station, gas station, medical center and grocery stores, as well as electricians, plumbers and other maintenance personnel. Copies of the list were sent to every household.

On January 26, the second day of the Chinese New Year, the village experienced a shortage of face masks. Liu used his own money to purchase 2,000 masks, which he distributed to those working at the village entrance, as well as cleaners, people with disabilities, pensioners and the elderly.

"We would not leave them helpless because of their physical or economic predicament," he said.

Motivated by village cadres, villagers also donated money and materials to those in need. Zhang Jingyi, an 83-year-old villager, is seriously ill and has no money. She felt sorry for the village cadres who worked day and night and donated 200 yuan ($29). "You work so hard, and I want to express my appreciation for that," she said.

In total, donations of more than 40,000 yuan ($5,740), as well as 400 kilograms of disinfectant, 2,200 masks, 52 boxes of instant noodles and 340 bags of rice helped meet the daily needs of village residents.

Two small shops selling vegetables in the village have also been affected by the pandemic, with one being closed completely and the other understocked. After communicating with the village officials, villagers' representatives and other related parties, the two stores agreed to deliver vegetables to villagers for free, with the cost of the vegetables covered by local businesses. The stores delivered five kinds of vegetable to each household three to four times a month, eliminating the need for villagers to source fresh vegetables during the pandemic.

In order to reduce the huge impact of the epidemic on people's and life and livelihoods, Liu has convened several Village Committee meetings for the resumption of business in local enterprises such as a lantern factory and rural homestays. The Village Committee carried out investigations into possible gaps in pandemic prevention and control, and carried out specialized training on epidemic prevention during resumption of work.

The lantern factory purchased enough raw materials to manufacture 2,000 lanterns and gave each staff member a separate room in which to work. Homestays reopened during the Labor Day holiday in May, with 32 homestays receiving more than 200 tourists since the beginning of June.

During the epidemic, Party members also took the lead in launching a sanitation campaign that organized residents into teams to conduct cleaning and sanitation activities in the village.

Longtou has never relaxed for a moment during the COVID-19 pandemic, with villagers taking turns to guard the village entrance day and night. Now the village committee continues to lead the village in the resumption of work, and in epidemic prevention and control, ensuring that all villagers live a healthy life with a sense of security, happiness and pride.

 

Liu Zongyong (first on the right), Secretary of the Longtou Village Party Branch, asks villagers for advice on how to improve the environment of the village (XINHUA)

A villager inspects an organic vegetable garden in Longtou (XINHUA)

People walk among the neat farmhouses in Longtou (XINHUA)