Wang Dong, party chief of Tianzhuangtuo village in the Ninghe district, of northeastern Tianjin, has been patrolling the village monitoring local residents' health amid the current novel coronavirus epidemic. On Tuesday, he received an unexpected letter from his father.

Wang Zhichun, his 83-year-old father, has suffered from hearing deterioration and has a hard time talking via phone, so he wrote the letter to encourage his son to continue working hard to enhance the protection of 400 local families from the virus.

He has not seen his son since Jan 24, when Tianjin adopted its top response under the four-level major public health emergency response system.

The son was on 24-hour duty advocating prevention measures to each family.

The father wrote:

"You should be responsible for our whole village. Don't be negligent about any possibilities, and prevent any emergency and sickness," the father wrote. "Please close our village if some severe syndrome appears. Your duties are highly important. Surviving this period will be auspicious for all our villagers.".

Wang was among the numerous village heads working to protect local villagers 24 hours a day in Tianjin.

They have halted all celebrations and family visits to their villages and broadcasted preventive measures, including using face masks.

"One family once decided to organize a wedding party, and I persuaded the family to postpone it to secure the health of the participants," he said.

The city has up to a population of 12 million living in suburban areas, and all village heads are required to work to assume the health protection duties.