This is not the first year the family has spent Lunar New Year's Eve apart. Since Hu and Wang married in 2005, they have spent fewer than half of their New Year's Eve's together, because one of them has been on duty at the hospital.

"I once complained that he (Hu) always puts the patients and his work ahead of me and our son, but I know it's the right thing to do as a doctor," Wang said.

"The lives of medical workers are always unusual, irrespective of whether the epidemic had happened or not, and I'm glad he cares about both his work and his family." They have decided to have a family photo taken as soon as the battle has been won. They have only had three family portraits taken in the past 10 years, and a new one would commemorate their victory over the coronavirus.

Ke Quan and Yu Chen, nurses at the Jinyintan Hospital in Wuhan

Ke Quan and Yu Chen were supposed to tie the knot in Wuhan on Feb 2, or 20200202, a rare palindromic date in the Chinese calendar.

In January, the civil affairs authorities approved the registration documents for the couple to get married on the lucky day, which fell on a weekend. The two nurses at Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University were only too happy to confirm their commitment to each other.

"We planned the marriage early in November, and chose the special date this year as our big day. Sadly, the plan was totally disrupted by the novel coronavirus pneumonia outbreak," Ke said.

When his department released a notice on Jan 11 calling for staff members to work in hospitals designated for patients infected with the virus, Ke immediately applied to work on the front line.