YINCHUAN, Feb. 13 (Xinhua) -- Hearing his cellphone beeping, Yu Baoliang knows he has new orders.

Yu is not an online retailer, but the Party chief of Hongxing Village in mountainous Jingyuan County, northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.

While China is making tremendous efforts in fighting against the spread of the novel coronavirus, or COVID-19, the remote village is also on the move.

Since peddlers have been declined from entering and villagers are asked not to shop in town to prevent themselves from being infected, the village committee has decided to organize purchases for villagers.

"They just send their orders via the WeChat group chat, and I will make a list and buy what they need," said Yu, whose minivan was loaded with celery, tomatoes and cooking oil.

In rural China, each village has a Party branch and a village committee in charge of the village affairs. The grassroots organizations have taken the lead and mobilized the villagers to fight together against the epidemic.

By the end of Wednesday, a total of 1,367 people had died of COVID-19 and 59,804 confirmed cases of infection had been reported on the Chinese mainland, according to national health authorities.

Days ago, the village committee bought 100 bags of flour, 50 bags of rice and 50 barrels of cooking oil. To avoid the risk of cross-infection caused by public collection, villager Li Zhiyong volunteered to carry out door-to-door deliveries on his tricycle.

Instead of entering each household, Li dropped the goods at the gate.

"They paid me via my phone, and the elderly who had trouble with mobile payment just handed out cash through the door slot," he said, adding that he kept a notebook to record the money he received and would later disclose all the details in the group chat.

"Epidemic prevention is not only the cadres' job. Everyone has to shoulder part of the responsibility," Li said.

Other volunteers also played their part in carrying out disinfection, spreading epidemic prevention knowledge, and registering the information of those who returned from cities.

The village has set up a checkpoint at the entrance guarded by volunteers around the clock. Ma Wanzhong is one of them.

Ma recorded people's information, measured their body temperatures and also turned down unnecessary visits.

"We persuaded many outsiders who came to send their Lunar New Year's greetings to go back," said Ma.

Yu said the active participation of the volunteers was partly thanks to a "credit supermarket" the village opened in 2018. Villagers participating in garbage sorting and public affairs would earn credits, which they could then trade for daily necessities in the supermarket.

"I believe with our mass efforts, the epidemic will be defeated eventually," he said.

To date, no infection cases have been reported in Jingyuan County.