My battle with coronavirus: Every delivery order a promise

(By Xinhua writers Sun Wenji, Liu Yide)

Wang Haifei, a 37-year-old deliveryman, summoned up all his courage to send an order to a community where there was a confirmed novel coronavirus patient.

But he was relieved when he arrived. The prevention and control staff were there, checking his temperature, noting down his identity information and disinfecting his electronic bike. He gave the package to the staff and left.

"I deliver packages everywhere in the city and have contact with many people every day. I felt that I had nowhere to hide from the virus which I couldn't see or touch when I went to communities with confirmed cases," he said.

"But every delivery order is a promise, and I should deliver it to its destination," he said.

Wang is one of the deliverymen who have been sending packages, mainly vegetables, meat, fruits and daily necessities for local residents who have chosen to stay home after the novel coronavirus outbreak, in Hohhot, capital of north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

As on most days, he got up before the sun rises at 5:30 a.m., and then put on a mask and headed for the delivery station.

At around 6 a.m., he arrived at the station and had his temperature checked. He had over 1,000 orders waiting for him.

He then prepared for the day of work, disinfected his delivery cart, put on a pair of gloves and drove to an agricultural product wholesale market.

The once busy market has stood largely deserted since the outbreak. Wang and his colleagues checked the packages at a warehouse, typed in the package information, sorted the packages and loaded them onto their carts.

Taking the orders took up his whole morning. At around 11 a.m., he was able to return to the station and had some instant noodles as lunch.

But his short lunchtime was disrupted by phone calls from residents urgently waiting for their orders.

"We have become running 'vegetable baskets' these days," Wang said to his colleagues, and then to himself. "We deliverymen can make a big difference too!"

After the quick lunch, he started to deliver the day's orders.

He put a bag of carrots and beef at a designated area of a local community and waited for the resident to pick it up.

Wang and the resident kept three meters apart from each other. Both wearing masks, they had to double-check it to see whether it was the right order.

"The waiting time can lead to delays, and I can only send around 100 packages a day and it is already nearly 9 p.m. when I finish the day's work," he said.

Physical exhaustion is no big thing in Wang's eyes. Complaints about delays from worried residents are difficult to deal with, to which he always tries his best to explain patiently.

But during the hard times, what Wang remembers is warmth, love and compassion from others.

"I once got a thumbs-up from a resident when I delivered an order to him. It touched my heart and cleared away all the misunderstandings," he said.

"A vegetable wholesaler knows that we can't have a good lunch, so he would prepare some hot food for us when we fetch goods at his store," Wang said.

After delivering all his orders, Wang returned home. His wife had been waiting for him, with dinner sitting on the table.

As they were having dinner, a news alert popped up on Wang's phone. China's courier sector has resumed over 40 percent of its normal delivery capacity with over 2 million deliverymen racing against the ongoing epidemic as of Feb. 18, the State Post Bureau said.

"I happily and proudly said to my wife that I am one of the 2 million," he said.