Measures for Caring Children, Women amid Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia Outbreak

A medical worker gives thumbs up to a child who receives medical treatment in hospital. [Xinhua]

As pregnant women and children are particularly susceptible to novel coronavirus pneumonia (NCP), special care and protective measures have been taken in many places throughout China to protect them from the virus.

Taiyuan Establishes Maternal and Child Treatment Team 

A medical team comprised of 168 professionals, including 10 obstetrics and 23 pediatric experts, was established in Taiyuan, a city in North China's Shanxi Province, to stand ready to conduct treatment services for any maternal and child infection cases at the city's designated hospitals.

Measures have been taken to strengthen the management of key areas in hospitals, including the neonatal room, delivery room and maternity ward. Family members are required to reduce frequency of visits and the numbers of accompanying persons are limited, to reduce the inpatients' risk of being infected by the virus.

More efforts have been made to promote the knowledge of epidemic prevention to pregnant women and children's parents through phone calls and WeChat, a popular instant messaging app.

Gansu Opens Hotline, Offers Psychological Counseling Services 

As the NCP spreads, the Women's Federation of Gansu Province and women's federations at the city and prefecture levels in the province have actively organized professional psychological counselors and opened counseling hotlines to provide psychological care to medical staff, community workers, parents and children.

The province's women's federation has recently launched comprehensive crisis intervention services to fight the outbreak, which include rights protection, psychological counseling, domestic-violence investigations and publicizing epidemic-related policies and regulations. 

Moreover, the federation opened a psychological crisis intervention hotline via the federation's official WeChat account in cooperation with the Gansu Women and Children's Psychological Counseling Association. The federation announced the contact information of the province's volunteers' team of women and children's psychological counseling and the volunteers' teams of psychological counseling of the women's federations at the city and prefecture levels in the province.

Zhou Zhiling, President of the association, said that being unable to go out for a long time may cause anxiety, panic and other negative emotions, especially among children and teenagers. 

She suggested that family members should show more tolerance and care for each other and try to ease the bad mood by playing games or reading books together with their children at home.

Sichuan Provides Daily Services to Quarantined Families

To curb the spread of the virus, the quarantine sites were set up in Sangyuan Town in Qionglai, a city in Southwest China's Sichuan Province, to conduct medical observation of those who had close contacts with confirmed cases.

Zhao Xiyao, Deputy Director of the Sangyuan Health Center, volunteered to work in the sites, providing services and caring for those in quarantine.

The father of a family came back from Wuhan, the epicenter of the novel coronavirus outbreak, and was diagnosed as a confirmed case during observation. The mother of the family and her two children needed to be quarantined separately. Zhao took the initiative to look after the two children, playing with the children every day, bringing them toys and giving them thoughtful care.

(Source: China Women's News/Translated and edited by Women of China)