Individuals, groups honored as grassroots role models of 2021

Ten individuals and groups were honored as 2021 role models during an award ceremony held in Beijing on Friday by Xinhua News Agency.

Among the laureates was Chen Qi, a medical worker in central China's Hubei Province. Since last year, Chen and her team have conducted epidemiological investigations on over 1,000 COVID-positive cases and their close contacts, racing against the clock to contain the spread of the virus.

Other awardees include a septuagenarian who has been providing services at an elderly care center for more than three decades, a firefighter who spent the past 20 years rescuing lives from raging fire, a group of volunteers providing assistance to patients and their family members at hospitals, a teacher who left the bustling municipality of Tianjin to teach in a poverty-stricken county in Tibet as part of an assistance initiative, and a Yangtze River patrol team dedicated to the protection of finless porpoises.

The role models were selected by netizens and experts.

A special award was given to a group of primary-level Party officials who devoted themselves to poverty eradication and rural vitalization.