(TibetanReview.net, Feb13’20) – A claim by China’s official media that a Tibetan nurse in Tsoshar (Chinese: Haidong) prefecture of Qinghai Province had volunteered to go and serve in Wuhan has been rejected as a lie and was reported to have occurred under coercion and without the knowledge of her family.
“The Chinese nurses in Bayan (or Palung, Chinese: Hualong) County hospital were not willing to go to Wuhan, so they drew lots to decide who should go, but even with that, the Chinese nurses were reluctant to go,” the Tibetan Service of rfa.org Feb 12 quoted an exile source with local contacts as saying. So “the Tibetan nurse was ordered to go” to Wuhan by upper management, he has said.
Her family members were reported to have learnt about her deployment to Wuhan only after she reached the Chinese city, which is the epicentre of the viral infection, and were now concerned for her safety.
Thirty-one-year-old Choegyi Dolma was stated to be the deputy nurse of the prefecture’s Hualong county Tibetan Medicine Hospital. “When hospital officials discussed who to send to Wuhan, Choegyi Dolma raised her hand to volunteer for the service,” state-run CCTV Tibetan news broadcast was quoted as saying Feb 11.
“All of her other colleagues were surprised by her determination and competency, and admired her courage to go to the epicentre of the epidemic in Wuhan,” the report was quoted as saying, adding that she went with the firm support of her family.
“I can’t give up my children, but since I am a nurse, it is also my duty to battle against the epidemic,” CCTV was reported to have further quoted Choegyi Dolma as saying, describing her mission to “ground zero helping the patients in Wuhan the same as protecting my children.”
Two nurses were reported to have been deployed to Wuhan from the Hualong hospital, although there is no report about the other nurse.
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Nine new cases were reported to have been confirmed in the Tibetan county of Tawu (Daofu) in Kardze (Ganzi) Prefecture, Sichuan Province, on Feb 12, taking the total in the prefecture to 36.
Citing the prefecture’s health commission, the report said all the nine new cases were Tibetans.
The youngest of the nine new patients was stated to be 3 years old and the oldest 72 years old.
