At one o'clock yesterday morning, we were awakened by a rhythmic knocking on the door... I thought to myself, it's so late, there shouldn't be anyone ordering takeout, right? Could it be someone from the community? Coming over so late, could there be an emergency?
After opening the door, I found that it was a staff member of the epidemic prevention and control team. I suddenly remembered that my roommate Guo had mentioned earlier that he was being monitored by the community. The reason was that he had returned to Taiyuan during the Qingming Festival, and there have been cases in Taiyuan these days. Coupled with the severe epidemic prevention and control situation in Shanghai, it caused tension everywhere, and they might come to find him.
A woman in her thirties, wearing protective clothing, was preparing nucleic acid collection equipment. There were several plastic bags and scattered cotton swabs and collection tubes around her... Seeing her busy on the ground without even looking up at us, the slight anger of being awakened dissipated. I knew that she was not just a staff member, but also someone's daughter, someone's wife, and someone's mother. At this moment, she seemed so small...
"It's so late and you're still not off work?"
"Yeah, I've been busy until now to get to your place."
She skillfully collected the doorknob with a cotton swab, and then prepared other cotton swabs to collect from Guo. This collection required poking the nose, and because he was the most closely monitored person, both nostrils had to be collected, while we only needed to collect one. It was our first time collecting from the nose, and we joked about whether it would be uncomfortable. The woman smiled and said to the girl among us, "I'll be gentler with you, no need to be afraid, others will just have to endure."
"Are there still many more households to visit?"
"Look, there are still so many." The woman lifted a bag of collection tubes. "We were even scolded when we knocked on the door there after two o'clock last night. It's not easy for us either."
After the collection was completed, we watched her walk towards the elevator, just one person, a lady.
