Citizens line up to receive antipyretic drugs at a Wanze Pharmacy in Shenzhen on Saturday. Shenzhen Evening News
Shenzhen residents are coming together to support one another at a time when antipyretic, cold and cough medicines are badly needed and in short supply.
A resident quickly responded to a message for help in a WeChat group in Futian District after 10 p.m. Friday night, according to a SZTV report Saturday.
The message was sent from a homeowner in a Futian residential compound, asking other homeowners of the same residential compound for help because one of his or her family members had a fever and they didn’t have any antipyretic medicines at home.
Someone in the WeChat group immediately replied, “You can come and fetch them. It’s free.”
In addition to mutual help among neighbors, strangers in the city have also helped each other and given out medicines for free.
One netizen shared on social media that since she didn’t have medicines at home, she asked for help from people in the same city through an online platform. To her surprise, a stranger was willing to deliver medicines to her and replied, “Shenzhen people help each other.”
Another netizen posted a picture of various small bags of medicines and wrote, “At this time, this is all I can do. I have kept enough for myself, and I’m giving out the rest. I hope I can help those who come to Shenzhen alone to work.” All the small bags of medicines were given away very soon.
Many local communities have also been active in providing services for its residents. In Haibin Community in Xin’an Subdistrict in Bao’an District, community health workers specially made traditional Chinese medicine tea drinks for COVID-19 prevention and sent the drinks to seven residential compounds within the community.
To facilitate residents sharing medicines, various subdistricts and communities have built platforms for residents to help each other.
A citizen surnamed Liu, who lives in Longgang District, donated all the 14 extra bags of paracetamol, caffeine and aspirin powder and ibuprofen in his home to the medicine mutual aid station at Shiling Community after he leaned about the station.
A number of pharmacies in the city have taken the initiative to provide free antipyretic drugs to residents to solve urgent medicine needs, according to Shenzhen Evening News.
Over the weekend, 79 Wanze Pharmacy stores distributed about 100,000 paracetamol, caffeine, artificial cow-bezoar and chlorpheniramine maleate capsules free of charge to citizens. Each citizen was able to get five capsules at a time.
Dashenlin Pharmacy also said that citizens who have a fever and cannot buy antipyretic drugs can go to its eight designated stores in Bao’an, Longhua, Futian and Nanshan districts to receive them until today.
Residents can get six ibuprofen capsules or 12 bags of paracetamol, caffeine and aspirin powder (dosage for three days) at a time.