Villagers come to local clinic for annual free health checks in Xinjiang

A doctor collects blood samples for a villager at the clinic of Yaragzi Village in Xihxu Township in Yecheng County, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, May 2, 2020. Early in the morning, villagers of Yaragzi Village came to the local clinic for annual free health checks. Besides health checks, local villagers also learned medical policy and healthy lifestyle from the medics of Xihxu Township. Xinjiang started to offer free universal health checks from October 2016. Urban and rural residents in the region are eligible for a free health checkup every year. Scattering in different valleys, there are nine administrative villages under the jurisdiction of Xihxu Township, with the farthest village more than 200 kilometers away from the township government. To implement the free health checkup policy, Xihxu Township health center has divided medics into different teams to provide on-site health services to villagers in remote villages such as Yaragzi Village. Setting out from the township government, medics need to drive across three snowy mountains and overcome difficulties such as high altitude and complex terrain before they can reach the Yaragzi Village and its three surrounding villages. Eziz, director of the physical examination department of Xihxu Township health center, said that they have been carrying medical equipment on the road for more than a month since this year's health checkup work began. Despite the long way and winding roads, Eziz said that they would always shoulder the responsibility of protecting the health of villagers. (Xinhua/Hu Huhu)