Tibetannet

XINING, Feb. 4 (Xinhua) -- Northwest China's Qinghai Province will soon publish a Tibetan version of the guidelines on novel coronavirus prevention, to help ethnic minorities in the province, Tibetans in particular, fight against the epidemic.

Published by the People's Medical Publishing House and compiled by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the book is expected to raise public awareness of the new virus in areas with poor medical and health care infrastructure, according to the provincial publicity department.

The book focuses on disease prevention, medical observation at home, medical treatment and psychological counseling for individuals and families. It will provide authoritative and professional knowledge for the minority groups to better protect themselves and dispel panic.

The free electronic version has been available on several online platforms since Sunday, which has received positive responses from viewers.

In the vast rural areas of the plateau province, officials, village volunteers and members of the Communist Party of China have already joined in the anti-virus campaign.

Twenty-four km away from the city of Xining, capital of Qinghai, Huangjiazhai Township, under the jurisdiction of the Hui-Tujia Autonomous County of Datong, has many migrant workers who returned to the town from across the country to celebrate the Spring Festival with their families.

"We have set up epidemic prevention stations covering the 20 villages in the town and carried out monitoring every day around the clock," said Li Wanzhi, Party secretary of Huangjiazhai Township.

Wen Shangbang and his wife, two doctors of Huangxi Village, have been working on the frontlines of virus prevention and control since the Spring Festival holiday.

"A total of 42 people returned to the village, most of whom are migrant workers and undergraduates. We focus on monitoring the physical condition of these returnees every day, and take their temperature four times a day. At present, these villagers are in a stable condition and report no fever cases," Wen said.

Residents of Gucheng Township, located in the city of Haidong, are mainly members of the Hui ethnic group, who typically organize many entertaining activities during the Spring Festival, such as acrobatics and performances.

This year, however, the local residents canceled the celebrations and are participating in the fight against the disease.

"During this special period, villagers cooperated very well with the government. So far, nine mosques and one Tibetan Buddhist temple in the town have been temporarily closed. Weddings and funerals have also been postponed or simplified due to the epidemic outbreak," said Che Guiping, an official of the town.

For herdsmen living scattered in the pastoral areas, the provincial government sends them epidemic prevention and control knowledge through social media platforms. In the Tibetan autonomous prefectures of Yushu and Golog, bilingual short videos on disease prevention and control, in Tibetan and Chinese, are popular with local herdsmen.

Cedain Chow, Party secretary of Zaduo County, Yushu, said government staff have been dispatched to interview students who study in Hubei Province, filed their information and taught local herders animal epidemic prevention knowledge.

Neighboring Tibet Autonomous Region reported the first confirmed case of novel coronavirus last week.

Relevant departments in the region have tightened anti-epidemic measures in local hospitals, airports and railway stations. The region has temporarily closed its scenic attractions to tourists starting from Jan. 27 to prevent gatherings of tourists and cross infections, according to the regional government.

Meanwhile, representatives of the Tibetan Buddhist community in Tibet jointly issued an initiative to suspend the opening of all temples and all religious activities.

On Jan. 31, the health commission of Tibet opened a consulting hotline to guide the public to understand the new virus so that they can deal with the epidemic rationally.

The hotline office has received more than 500 calls over the past four days, according to the regional health commission.

Ruan Shuiliang, head of the office, said she received a call from a tourist from the city of Wuhan, the center of the epidemic, who was crying for help and was worried about being infected.

"We provided her epidemiology knowledge and comforted her, then guided her to take quarantine measures," Ruan said, adding the tourist finally calmed down, and she later tested negative for the novel coronavirus.