A cute cartoon, two boxes of brown-sugar ginger tea, and a few cups of milk tea.

This was a heartwarming gift that Zhao Xinxin, a nurse at Nanjing Zijin Hospital, received while assisting with nucleic acid testing. That day, two young girls who had just finished their tests placed the gift beside her and, after saying a few words, hurried off. Busy with on-site sample collection, Zhao Xinxin didn’t have time to say much—and she didn’t even catch the girls’ faces. Later that evening, back at the hospital, she recalled the scene and, the moment she opened the bag to reveal the gift, tears welled up in her eyes. She recorded her experience and feelings in a short video and shared it online, where it was picked up by media outlets such as Yangtze Evening News’ Zi News and Nanjing TV’s Live Nanjing. Coincidentally, one of the girls’ parents happened to see the “missing‑person notice.” And so, a touching reunion unfolded: Zhao Xinxin met the two girls again, and this beautiful bond will continue.

We set out once again to fight the epidemic, living up to our mission and honoring the spring.

The epidemic is an order, and prevention and control is a responsibility. In the face of this crisis, everyone bears an inescapable duty. Over the past three years since the outbreak began, Nanjing Zijin Hospital has promptly sounded the “call to arms” for pandemic response each time, actively joining the frontline efforts. Just in March of this year, since the detection of the Omicron variant in Nanjing, the hospital has dispatched more than a hundred personnel to support nucleic acid‑testing operations across the city.

Zhang Yi is the team leader of the second group in the nucleic acid testing support team at Nanjing Zijin Hospital. He said that, due to epidemic prevention and control requirements, everyone had been staying at the hospital for several days without going out. Just then, a sudden cold snap hit, and when they received the call to assemble for support that evening, none of them had warm clothing on hand. Early the next morning, they bundled up in whatever thin layers they could find and headed straight to the sampling sites. Once they arrived and got busy, the cold was no longer an issue; all they cared about was doing their part to help bring the pandemic to an end as soon as possible. Zhang Yi added that during their week of supporting nucleic acid testing outside the hospital, the words he heard most often were “thank you” from local residents—simple yet heartfelt, warming their hearts. Meanwhile, the hospital assigned dedicated staff to check in with them every night, providing essential supplies and ensuring they had everything they needed, so they could focus entirely on their work. This experience will remain the most cherished memory of this spring.