"What a convenient and safe way." Li Juan Said after finishing the COVID-19 Nucleic Acid Test (NAT) 0at a bus. She shared that all the staff of Municipal Water Resources Bureau, where she worked before retirement, don’t need to go all the way to the assigned 4 testing stations for sampling. Instead, they can just go through the test at bus.

What kind of bus is she talking about?

Since more and more citizens need to take the NAT under the ever-changing situation of epidemic prevention and control, Xiangtan Central Hospital, while keep the current 3 fixed sampling sites, creatively initiated to equip 4 buses with required NAT materials in collaboration with the government of Yuhu District and send them to Railway Station, Water Resources Bureau, Guangyun Road and Wangcheng Tianyu respectively to complete the task of sampling. This demonstrates our hospital’s will to work for the people, take good care of them and solve their problems by heart.

The operation of NAT bus is a cooperative work of hospital, bus company and China Telecom. The bus company provides free buses and drivers. China Telecom and engineers from hospital established the network of buses, connecting it directly with the provincial sampling platform of COVID-19 NAT. Each bus has four windows to differentiate the sampling of people with yellow or green health QR codes.

Li Shaojie, vice secretary of hospital CPC and vice president of hospital, said that the advantage of mobile sampling buses is their flexibility, which reduces the going out of citizens by giving access to test services right in residential community, public institutions, and enterprises, hence reducing infections risks. With air conditioner in the bus, sampling staff won’t feel hot in heavy prevention clothes. The bus is sterilized every half an hour and citizens can be sampled without getting into the bus, which reduce the contacts of people and the risks of being infected. Therefore, this kind of sampling buses are hugely welcomed by citizens and they appeal for more buses.