(Yicai Global) April 5 -- Chinese online travel agency Trip.Com Group is providing taxi services for Covid-19 pandemic prevention-related institutions around Shanghai.

Dong Yuanqiang, a taxi driver for Trip.Com, told Yicai Global that he is busy all day escorting medical workers to residential communities to take nucleic acid tests during the city’s closed-off management. He is living in an interim dormitory provided by a healthcare service center in Shanghai’s Putuo district since the end of last month.

The rechecks, which are carried out when a batch of tests comes back positive and the authorities need to identify which residents are actually infected, last until dawn sometimes, Dong said, adding that the following day’s schedule will be adjusted accordingly so as to guarantee every driver has enough sleep.

“The rechecks at night are relatively more riskier than the daytime work”, Dong noted. “However, our work is much safer than that of medical workers and volunteers that are at the frontline every day. We are only here to assist them so they are the brave ones.”

“Despite the long working hours, I still have a sense of fullfilment,” Gong said, adding that his family, which lives in northern China’s Hebei province, strongly supports him as they believe his work is meaningful.

Dong gets up at 6.00 a.m., wears a protective suit, gloves, and a mask, takes his special pass with him, and starts driving medical staffers around the city.

Shanghai’s Puxi, the region to the west of the Huangpu River, has started the lockdown at the beginning of this month. The previously crowded roads now are empty. “Also if there are no cars on the road, we still need to obey traffic rules and drive carefully without exceeding the speed limit or running a red light,” Dong pointed out.

Once the medical workers arrive at the communities, they immediately start testing residents for Covid-19. Dong and the other drivers either wait for them outside or return to the healthcare service center to pick up the next group of medics.

Dong and the other drivers will return to the dormitory for dinner after their daytime shift is over. “There is a canteen in the center, which is where we also pick our anti-pandemic materials and daily necessities,” he said, adding that some disinfection workers have no time to eat in the canteen, so they get their meals packed in boxes.

Sometimes Dong’s day doesn’t end after dinner. If needed, he will have to send medical workers door-to-door to collect new nucleic acid test samples if those taken during the day have some issues.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Futura Costaglione