All the people tested negative.
It was nearly 11pm on Jan. 20th when possible COVID-19 cases were found inside Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center. The university instantly responded with emergency measures.
To prevent virus transmission on the nearby Fenglin Campus, Jiao Yang, Chairperson of Fudan University Council and Xu Ningsheng, President of Fudan University, issued orders and instructions, while Yuan Zhenghong, Chairperson of Fudan University Shanghai Medical College Council and Jin Li, Vice President of Fudan University stayed up the whole night at the scene directing the prevention campaign.
At 8am the next morning, Jiao Yang presided at an emergency meeting for on-campus COVID-19 prevention. Heads from both Fudan University and the affiliated Shanghai Medical College attended this meeting, sharing health updates of students and faculty and making plans for the next period.
Nucleic acid testing has been conducted among all students now staying on campus. On receiving the notification from the university in the wee hours, the students immediately took actions in perfect order under the guidance of volunteers. Most of them were woken up at 5 am, and the students who stayed up for the night for their work in laboratories rushed back to their dorms to keep in line with the stay-in-dorm order.
“The students were very cooperative, and no one complaint about the sudden testing, which made our work easier and the campus safer,” said Gu Ying from the Fudan affiliated Children’s Hospital.
Some students volunteered to assist medics with the campus-wide nucleic acid testing.
Fan Guangyuan, a Ph.D student majoring in pharmacology was one of the student volunteers. Having just returned to his dorm from his laboratory, he saw the notification about the recruitment of volunteers and signed up for the position with no hesitation.
“We were immediately summoned downstairs for urgent training. Our task was to ensure that all students staying on campus have been tested,” said Fan.
Another volunteer Jiang Ming, a PhD student majoring in anesthesiology, also worked through the night, patiently guiding each student to complete registration before testing, assisting medical teams from Fudan affiliated hospitals with the testing, and escorting the shipment of the samples to be examined in hospitals.
Recalling his experience that night, Jiang expressed his amazement, “It’s like completing an impossible task! All thanks to the concerted effort of the medics, university staff and students.”
About 360 support staffers assisted this emergency action, protecting the 3,600 students on Fenglin Campus. Qiao Junqi, a staff member of the General Affairs Office, rushed back to the campus that night when informed of the situation, and worked alongside other support staffers to quickly set up temporary facilities for nucleic acid testing.
On the night, 30 campus property management staffers disinfected the key areas on the campus four times with strictly prepared disinfectant that proves effective for cutting virus transmission.
The sun was soon to rise, and a new challenge came up. Breakfast had to be sent to doorsteps as all the students were now ordered to stay in the dorm. A crew of about 50 canteen staffers began preparing 4,000 servings of breakfast at 2 am, two hours earlier than usual. At 7 am, everyone started packing the meals. At 7:30, a delivery team of more than 70 people were all set. They placed the food into heat-insulated delivery boxes and finished delivery to all the students within an hour.
Security staff could be seen in every corner of the campus, ensuring the safety of students. Chen Sijun, one of the staff members, dashed back to the campus from home at 12:30 am to coordinate the implementation of emergency measures and to conduct access control at the university gates.
“The security officers have held fast to their posts on Fenglin Campus and all other campuses of Fudan University. Increased personnel and ever-improving protective gears have strengthened our capability in keeping the virus off the campus, ” said Chen Sijun. At present, some security staff from all other Fudan campuses has been drafted to set up a 24-hour standby team on Fenglin Campus to cope with virus-related emergency situations.
This was a night to remember. It witnessed the concerted effort of the all the departments, colleges and hospitals to protect our home-like university.
