Officials relieve the pressure

A community staff member in Jiading issues certificates to residents so that they can get surgical masks from a nearby pharmacy. — Yu Chao 

Staff Reporters
Over 3,000 district officials in Jiading District are in communities, villages and enterprises keeping things running to help relieve the pressure on workers fighting the coronavirus outbreak.
Jiading Town communities had its first batch of more than 50 officials in place over the past weekend. 
They were involved in virus prevention and control including recording personal information of people coming in and out of communities, taking temperatures, giving passes and serving residents staying home for observation.
Most residential communities in the region have outdated layouts, making it more difficult to manage in a crisis like this. 
“Our community workers and volunteers have stuck to the job without rest since the Spring Festival eve and that’s about a month ago,” said Shen Qian, Party secretary of the Tacheng Road Neighborhood Committee. 
“We were really stressed as we were short of hands,” she said, “but now with the help we can catch some breath and that’s really a great relief.”
Jiang Minqiang from the district’s labor union joined the team at Shengxin Community in Jiading Industrial Zone. 
He offered to act as a deliveryman for people in quarantine at home. He joined the community workers’ WeChat group to gather information. 
“I could do better once I’m familiar with everything, but the first thing for me is to get on to it,” Jiang said.  
Head of the district’s gardening department Chen Wei also played her part. She stayed at a neighborhood committee in Malu Town and made calls to see whether there were more residents who had returned to Shanghai recently. Then she helped issue certificates so residents could buy face masks. 
“The communities are a new key in prevention and control and the tasks came in with a large amount and different requirements,” Chen said. “And it is a time like this that we need to stick together and win the battle.”
At M11, another residential complex in Malu Town with more than 900 households, the work is not easy. Apart from the 30-plus households that need special attention for stay at home observation, two property management staff were still out of Shanghai at the time, leaving only one property manager, Yu Shuiying, on duty.
Every day she shops for isolated households, takes care of their garbage and delivers their packages. “I wish I had more arms to tend to these tasks,” she says.
Zhang Hui from the district’s house management department came to her rescue. She helped sort out information recording and other tasks, relieving the burden on community workers.
“Working in the communities can really go into the details and unexpected things happen all the time,” said Zhu Shun, who also came to support the community. “We would not have a clear idea of any of these if we hadn’t come.”
In this special time, residents may have complaints about all the inconveniences going on in their life and the community workers are obliged to step in and help things go smoothly. 
“Our job here are temporary, but we will try to make the effort and the outcome last,” Zhu said when he ended his day of community work. 
(Translated by Yang Wenjie)