Virtual care facing the COVID-19 outbreak in China. (1st February 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Zhang, Jingxue; Yang, Minhui; Sui, Zhen
• Is Part Of: International journal of care and caring. Volume 6:Number 1/2(2022)
• Page Start: 275
• Page End: 281
• Publication Date: 2022-02-01
• Subjects: virtual care -- social organising -- cyberspace
• DOI: 10.1332/239788221X16196129721067
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2397-8821

Abstract

Abstract : New ways of care have emerged as the COVID-19 pandemic sweeps the world, including virtual care exchanged in cyberspace. As people are physically isolated by travel restrictions and guidelines to avoid gatherings and keep at distance, cyberspace has become a major place in which people care about and for each other. When government-oriented medical and civil service systems malfunctioned upon the rapid outbreak in Hubei Province, China, Chinese people used online social platforms to provide individual and organised care activities ‐ disseminating information, petitioning for access to healthcare, offering voluntary mental health interventions and facilitating embodied and material support ‐ to respond to the challenges of local people at the epicentre. This article intends to acknowledge and showcase the virtual care that Chinese people demonstrated transnationally upon the outbreak of COVID-19 in China, and discusses the significance and impacts of this way of care in the cyberspace era.