Cover of Dr. Zha's Diary of Fighting the COVID-19 Photo: Courtesy of Renji Hospital

The English version of Dr. Zha's Diary of Fighting the COVID-19, a book about the experiences and lives of Shanghai's first batch of medical experts who fought COVID-19 in Hubei for 68 days, recently opened a global pre-sale on Amazon.com,Shanghai Jiao Tong University Press announced on Thursday. There are more versions in other languages on the way.

The book is China's first official piece from a frontline doctor about the fight against the coronavirus. The author, Zha Qiongfang, a member of the first Shanghai medical team, is a respiratory physician from Shanghai's Renji Hospital.

It consists of 67 diary pieces that Zha wrote during her stay in Wuhan, Central China's Hubei Province. Zha said that, when she first began writing the diary, she was just trying to organize her thoughts and report her daily work to relieve her from the pressure of the combat, letting people know that she and her colleges were still coping in Hubei, reports said. 

The dairy gained widespread attention after it was published by the media. Zha said that she hopes that she can share China's experience in fighting the coronavirus to the world and that the book speaks to people from around the world, highlighting how important it is to unite together in the fight against the coronavirus in order to win the battle.

The book is also believed to be a record of how Wuhan has successfully recovered from the city's previous feelings of desperation. "It not only notes down the journey that her team went on to win this battle, but also the stories of ordinary people, like drivers, cleaning workers, and delivery men, who supported Wuhan as best they could," a netizen commented on Sina Weibo.

Publication of the English-translated version will be completed by Canadian publisher Naturalogic Publishing Inc. The copyright exporting of the Vietnamese, Thai, and Hindi versions of the book have also been completed, and that of the Japanese and Russian versions are currently being negotiated, Li Dan, assistant director of the Chinese version's publisher, Shanghai Jiao Tong University Press, told the media.