A news conference in a meeting room in Huizhou Central Hospital on Thursday afternoon might seem boring and routine for reporters who have been keeping an eye of the first MERS case in China and coming to the hospital daily for updates about the patient's condition.
We would have been more interested in taking a peek into the intensive care unit downstairs, where the South Korean patient is receiving treatment in isolation.
However, we were shut out of the ward, no matter how much we begged the city health bureau's media officers.
We could learn how strict the disease prevention and control is in the ward from the photos the media officers showed us. Doctors and nurses are covered head-to-toe with protective clothing - hats, masks, overalls, gloves and boots.
All 35 people infected with the MERS virus in South Korea, except for the first patient, caught it in hospitals.
But the doctors and nurses at the news conference seemed unafraid of the high risk of becoming infected.
Neither did they show much fatigue after having worked day and night with the patient for eight days - a patient who is emotionally unstable, lonely for a faraway home and reading accusatory comments left online by his compatriots in South Korea.
The consulate-general of South Korea in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, has sent people to visit the patient, to bring him some comfort.
Healthcare heroes on front line in latest fight
"When he was uneasy, I would gently touch his forehead, tell him to hold on and even sing the Korean children's folk rhyme Three Bears for him," said Zhuo Si, a 25-year-old nurse who knows some Korean.
"I said, 'Let's be friends', and told him my name," she said.
The young nurse admitted being afraid of getting infected, but she has a strong sense of belonging with colleagues by her side.
Huang Yuliang, deputy director of the hospital in Huizhou, said, "Having gone through the test of handling SARS and bird flu, we've put together a sound health crisis management system in China, and our doctors and nurses have honed their technical and mental strengths to prevent and control the disease.
"We're busy and tired, but we are confident we will handle the case well."
Huang said he appreciates the media's efforts to report the most up-to-date news to the public and spread information about disease prevention and control.
