Li Lanjuan is pictured while attending the meeting at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Sept 8. [Photo/ thehour.cn]

China held a meeting at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Sept 8 to commend role models in the country's fight against the COVID-19 epidemic.

The meeting commended outstanding individuals and groups in the fight against COVID-19, as well as outstanding Party members and primary-level Party organizations across the country, many of which were from East China's Zhejiang province.

Li Lanjuan, a well-known 73-year-old epidemiologist, attended the meeting and received dual honors as both an outstanding individual and outstanding Party member. Li is an academician at the Chinese Academy of Engineering and director of the State Key Laboratory of Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Disease at the First Hospital of Zhejiang Province.

The First Hospital of Zhejiang Province was awarded as both an outstanding group and outstanding primary-level Party organization. Deputy Director of the hospital's Department of Critical Care Medicine, Zheng Xia, was recognized as an outstanding individual. Zheng was the first medical expert from Zhejiang to travel to Wuhan in Hubei province, China's worst-hit city, to provide aid amid the COVID-19 epidemic. Zheng worked at the Intensive Care Unit of Wuhan's designated coronavirus-treating Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital for 72 days.