Behind every nucleic acid sample is a person who is anxiously waiting for the results, he is running for countless hopes
"Virus Courier" Mei Yiqi's "Wonderful" Journey
Our reporter Du Yifang, Mou Yu, and Yang Zhirun
"Xiaoman Xiaoman, Changjiu Garden has received 28 nucleic acid samples. Please reply if you receive it." In the Changjiu Garden Community, Yuhua District, Shijiazhuang City, Mei Yiqi checked the residents' nucleic acid samples and quickly packed, disinfected and sealed them. The action is simple and neat.
As one of the most dangerous links in nucleic acid testing, nucleic acid sample transporters have to come into contact with a large number of uninactivated nucleic acid samples waiting to be tested. Mei Yiqi’s job is called a "virus courier."
Ten days ago, he was still in Wuhan, Hubei Province, more than 900 kilometers away.
In the cold wind, he raced against the virus again.
On January 10, 2021, tens of thousands of couriers in Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province completed the second round of nucleic acid tests and took to the streets one after another. This city that has pressed the "pause button" due to the new crown pneumonia epidemic quietly recovered.
The second round of nucleic acid testing at "International Village" with a population of over 10 million only took two days. Behind the high efficiency, a group of "virus couriers" stepped forward to shuttle between nucleic acid sampling sites and testing laboratories with ultra-high efficiency. And undertake tasks such as checking the number of samples and confirming patient testing items.
In the speed of life and death, Mei Yiqi was one of the ordinary members.
"Don't tell your family, wait until I go back."
At the beginning of 2021, people are still immersed in anticipation for the New Year, and the epidemic "returns".
On January 6, as an ordinary employee of the logistics department of Wuhan Jinyu Medical Laboratory Co., Ltd., 31-year-old Mei Yiqi took the initiative to ask Ying to go to Shijiazhuang for support.
At 5 o'clock in the afternoon of the same day, he arrived in Shijiazhuang. After a simple handover, Mei Yiqi immediately went into the intense "battle"—undertaking the task of transporting nucleic acid samples.
Mei Yiqi is no stranger to this kind of work.
In 2020, Mei Yiqi participated in the anti-epidemic in Wuhan and Chengdu successively, and was responsible for the collection and delivery of nucleic acid samples in Wuhan Leishenshan Hospital.
In the cold wind, he raced against the virus again.
Starting from January 6, Shijiazhuang strives to carry out nucleic acid tests for all employees of the city's 11 million people within 3 days.
As a transporter of nucleic acid samples, Mei Yiqi works more than 11 hours a day, trying his best to race against the virus.
"Only work time, no off work time." Mei Yiqi said.
Within a day, he needs to travel to several nucleic acid sampling points in Shijiazhuang City, drive a cold chain logistics truck, and bring the samples back to the medical laboratory in the shortest time.
Shijiazhuang suffered extreme cooling weather for several days, the temperature dropped to minus 15 degrees Celsius, and the outdoor body temperature was even lower.
Even many native people in Shijiazhuang have never felt the cold, and it happened that Mei Yiqi, who grew up in Wuhan, could catch up.
"Even if you wear protective gloves, your fingers will freeze." Mei Yiqi said, Wuhan was only a few degrees Celsius in the coldest time, and it was the first time for me to work in such cold conditions.
Due to the rush of time, he only brought a set of work clothes, a down jacket and two warm pants when he set off.
The howling northwest wind kept digging into the clothes from the neck, "too cool" from top to bottom.
The protective clothing was thick and it was very inconvenient to work. Mei Yiqi gritted his teeth and wore only work clothes.
At 5:30 in the morning, Mei Yiqi got up on time, rushed to the work unit, packed up sampling consumables, disinfectant alcohol, garbage bags, cable ties, scissors, specimen box, etc., and put on protective clothing with her partner. It took less than 3 minutes. The two were fully armed and ready to go.
Every time he sets off, he carries two boxes, one box can hold two to three hundred nucleic acid samples.
Sterilize at any step from the sample to the hand.
"All work is done in a ventilated place. It is absolutely forbidden to leave anything on site. No piece of paper can be left. It must be repeatedly disinfected before leaving."
"I have to spray 75% alcohol several hundred times a day, especially when I wear protective clothing. I spray the alcohol and I can't breathe in it. Now I am completely used to it." Every time he goes out on a mission, he has to take it with him. For a bottle of about 3 liters of alcohol, you need half a bottle at a time.
When returning to the dormitory every night, he not only washes his hands and disinfects, but also spends 5 minutes to clean his nasal cavity, from head to toe, to sleep at ease.
When I open my eyes, I work, and I go back and forth more than a dozen times a day, which is stressful and tight.
Wherever sampling is needed, Mei Yiqi rushes there.
"The most important thing for escorting nucleic acid samples is timeliness, sealing, disinfection, and delivery to the laboratory as soon as possible, with high activity and accurate results."
Overloaded workload makes Mei Yiqi "woke up in the morning almost like falling apart."
Enduring sleepiness, he washed his face with cold water to force himself up.
He joked: "I feel dizzy and I can't open my eyes, and I feel like my soul is not in my body. Fortunately, once I go to work, I will be completely sleepy.
The rest is not good, the place of life is unfamiliar, even his family dare not tell, Mei Yiqi is not unshakable.
Approaching late at night, he typed a line on his mobile phone memo: "It's been two days since I came to Shijiazhuang, I feel so tired here, I really want to go home."
"During the anti-epidemic period in Wuhan, the family knew that they were afraid to watch the news. This time they were far away from home, fearing that their parents would be more worried, so they didn't say anything but told their girlfriends." He secretly told himself that withdrawing is the real loser. Up.
On January 8, the work came to an end. Mei Yiqi sent a WeChat message to his sister Mei Xiaoyan.
The younger sister knew that her brother had been in Shijiazhuang for two days.
"It's all over Wuhan, it's okay." Mei Yiqi said.
"The sooner the national nucleic acid test results come out, the faster you can understand the specific conditions of the epidemic area, and the people can feel at ease." Mei Yiqi repeatedly told her sister, "Don't tell your family, wait until I go back."
All I can do is protect every sample
"I have experienced the situation in Wuhan and Chengdu, so I feel the same." Mei Yiqi, who was born in 1990, joined the party at the age of 19 and has 12 years of party experience.
When he was 15 years old, he saved a drowning child in a small pond in the village. “From childhood to adulthood, helping others has always been an instinct-driven thing.”
"Logistics personnel are the key to the race against the virus and time. Staying on the front line, what I can do is to protect every sample and assist the government in completing the big screening as soon as possible." Mei Yiqi said.
When the Wuhan epidemic broke out, logistics workers were in short supply.
On the sixth day of the Lunar New Year last year, Mei Yiqi prepared to return to Wuhan from his hometown to work.
"A lot of people can't get out, why are you still going back!" Upon hearing his decision, the family was anxious.
Mother and younger sister took turns to persuade, but Mei Yiqi couldn't agree with it.
At noon that day, he drove 130 kilometers and passed 8 barriers, becoming the first batch of workers returning to work in Wuhan.
"At that time, there were unknown fears in my heart. It was a lie to say that I was not afraid, but I couldn't take care of that much. Just do it."
From the next day, Mei Yiqi came to the company first every day, and did not rest for dozens of days.
From around Wuhan, to Jingmen, Jingzhou, and Honghu, he is there.
On February 15 last year, there was a heavy snowfall in Wuhan during a special period, which instantly blasted Weibo and Moments.
At this time, Mei Yiqi received the company's notice and rushed to Honghu First People's Hospital to deliver a batch of medical supplies.
The original one and a half hour’s drive, to ensure safety, they took more than 4 hours to deliver.
After a short break, he set off again at 5 in the morning.
Due to bad weather, the expressway returning to Wuhan has been temporarily closed.
"I have to run more than 720 kilometers a day and drive for nearly 10 hours." Mei Yiqi, who is young, has the old problem of low back pain.
The 47-year-old veteran Liu Senbo who worked with Mei Yiqi.
They took the initiative to undertake the high-risk task of the collection and delivery of nucleic acid samples from Leishenshan Hospital.
Liu Senbo has been in business longer and more experienced. He is responsible for carrying boxes containing nucleic acid samples, while Mei Yiqi is responsible for every step of the killing.
There are a lot of hardships on the retrograde road, but more of warmth.
Once, Mei Yiqi collected nucleic acid samples from Wuhan City to Jingshan City when the vehicle was stopped by accident.
"A big brother came to check and saw that it was us. He said:'They are in charge of transporting samples and are here to help us. Let them go right away!' When they left, they had a lot of food stuffed." Mei Yi drove away. Qi looked through the rearview mirror and saw a group of people saluting the vehicle in the freezing wind. At that moment, his tears burst out of the bank.
When Wuhan was unblocked on April 8 last year, Mei Yiqi had transported more than 26,000 nucleic acid samples and the mileage exceeded 32,000 kilometers.
"Some people evaded fear, but he volunteered to fight and returned to Wuhan. Leishenshan treated critically ill patients. He traveled through the most dangerous isolation rooms to collect samples every day. He was a soldier at the forefront of danger." Said Lei Dengfeng, the interviewer and manager of the company's logistics department when Mei Yiqi joined the company three years ago.
In early December last year, a confirmed case of new coronary pneumonia was found in Chengdu, and Mei Yiqi was the first to provide support.
On the day of arrival, he put on protective clothing and worked directly until 4 in the morning despite the fatigue of the boats and cars.
On January 11 this year, the second round of nucleic acid testing in high-risk areas of Shijiazhuang City was launched, and the second round of nucleic acid testing for all employees in the city will soon begin, requiring a lot of material and manpower.
More than 3 o'clock in the afternoon that day, the cold wind was everywhere.
The reporter saw that Mei Yiqi, dressed in red and black work clothes, stood among more than 20 colleagues, explaining important precautions for the collection and delivery of nucleic acid samples.
"You must fill in the sample list carefully, and every step must not be sloppy..." Nowadays, Mei Yiqi, who has grown up, works with Zuo Lin, who is 4 years younger than him.
In Mei Yiqi's hand-to-hand teaching, the two quickly developed a tacit understanding.
As a local, Zuo Lin was responsible for driving and killing, while Xiaomei took over the more risky task of carrying boxes.
"Mei Ge doesn't talk much, but he is meticulous in his work. I am very moved to support us all the way." said Zuo Lin, who goes to the hotel to pick Mei Yiqi to and from get off work every day.
Running for countless hopes
Mei Yiqi's hometown is in the rural suburbs of Xinzhou District, Wuhan City, Hubei Province.
He remembers that when he was young, his family relied on tossing seven or eight acres of land and raising a few pigs to support a family of five.
After graduating from technical secondary school in 2008, he stepped into the society and left alone.
Worked on the assembly line of a factory, set up a street stall in a busy city, sold mobile phones in a shopping mall, sold fire extinguishing equipment, worked as a real estate agency...
In 2018, Mei Yiqi made a mistake and found her current logistics job.
During the epidemic, he rushed to the front line to find a feeling of being "needed" and a stronger sense of belonging.
"Behind every sample is a person who is anxiously waiting for the result, and he is running for countless hopes." Mei Yiqi said that giving is another kind of gain, perhaps this is the meaning of life he has been pursuing.
At the end of the interview, the reporter found three densely packed toilet papers in the hotel room where Mei Yiqi lived.
He said that he came too hastily this time. Without a record book, he wrote down some differences in the work process and his experience on toilet paper, and took it out to look through when nothing happened.
In just one week in Shijiazhuang, Mei Yiqi has transported more than 10,000 nucleic acid samples.
Up to now, Mei Yiqi has rushed to the three cities of Wuhan, Chengdu, and Shijiazhuang, transporting more than 40,000 nucleic acid samples, achieving zero errors.