China’s northernmost Heilongjiang province sent a medical team to Xiaogan in Hubei province to help fight the novel coronavirus epidemic on the evening of Feb 12, according to local officials.
 
Xiaogan -- as a severe virus-hit city in Hubei province -- is a counterpart support city of Heilongjiang province, local officials said.
 
They added that the Heilongjiang medical team will support Xiaogan in accordance with the interprovincial counterpart support deployment requirements of the National Health Commission.
 
The medical team, led by Fang Qingwei -- deputy director of the Heilongjiang Provincial Health and Health Committee -- comprised 310 medical staff and six teams of management and support staff.
 
The medical staff were from 13 cities in Heilongjiang province, and officials said that most of them had top skills and rich experience in treatment and nursing of diseases in the fields of respiratory, infectious diseases and critical medicine.
 
The team is expected to help Xiaogan effectively implement the “early detection, early reporting, early isolation, and early treatment” virus fighting strategy.
 
Officials said this will ensure the provision of prevention and treatment services, strengthen medical treatment and epidemic management capabilities and increase the rate of treatments and cures.
 
To date, Heilongjiang has sent a total of 572 medical staff to Hubei province in three batches: the first medical team consisting of 137 people, the second 119-member medical team and the newly-sent medical team especially dispatched to support Xiaogan city.