As each air traveler took off their facial mask in a negative pressure room, Meng Jing, armed to the teeth in protective clothing, carefully collected a throat swab specimen to detect for coronavirus.
Meng, 34, is one of the "virus huntresses" at the Tianjin Binhai International Airport in northern China's Tianjin Municipality, who conducts epidemiological investigations on all inbound air travelers.
Throat swab sampling has been widely used to screen for the virus before the collected specimens are put into tubes and transferred to labs for nucleic acid testing.
To improve sample collection, she would ask every passenger taking the test to cough deeply two or three times, which helps to move lower respiratory tract secretions to the throat, Meng said.
She then leaves the swab in place for around 20 seconds to absorb secretions while the passenger being tested says 'aah' with thier mouth wide open, just a dozen centimeters away from Meng's face shield.
"Some may feel uncomfortable during the process, feel like vomiting or even start to cough," Meng said. "And the droplets fall directly onto my face shield and protective suit when they cannot hold back."
That is why she and her colleagues could never be too careful when taking off their protective suits after work. They must not touch any of the contaminated parts and thoroughly conduct disinfection with each other's help.
"People were quite patient and cooperative, though many had gone through a long fight of over 10 hours," Meng said. "Some showed their appreciation for our efforts and gave a few words of encouragement."
All seven sampling staff at the Tianjin airport, except the team leader, are female, testing air travelers from one flight after another.
Meng recalled her busiest day when six flights landed at the airport within 24 hours, with the whole team working continuously for 28 hours from 3 a.m. to the next morning, collecting more than 1,000 samples.
"The workload on that day was beyond imagination, although we had anticipated the situations and had plans for various unexpected ones through simulations," Meng said. She added that all she had to eat that day was a few slices of toast before putting on the thick hazmat suit.
Meng recalled that being inside the encapsulating protective suit for a long time was like running a marathon as she was soaked in sweat and had labored breathing.
"At one time I was barely holding on, but I knew I had to grit my teeth to avoid errors and omissions," she said.