Objective  To study the participation in volunteer emergency service and its influencing factors during coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic among the public in China.

  Methods   With Wenjuanxing platform, we carried out a voluntary online survey among 19 132 internet users in 31 provincial level administrative regions across China using a self-designed questionnaire during August 2020.

  Results   Of all the respondents, 79.2% reported the participation in volunteer emergency service during the period of COVID-19 epidemic. Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed following significant influencing factors for the participation in the volunteer emergency service: perceived social support (yes vs. no: odds ratio OR = 4.339), monthly income (relatively high vs. low: OR = 2.075), age (≤ 25 vs. ≥ 46: OR = 1.956), cognition on the susceptibility to COVID-19 (high vs. low: OR = 1.918), marriage status (married vs. other status: OR = 1.908), self-rated health (good vs. poor: OR = 1.414), gender (male vs. female: OR = 1.344), residential region (rural vs. urban: OR = 1.323), sense of security and happiness (high vs. low: OR = 1.312), employment situation (being employed vs. other employment status: OR = 1.255), relevant knowledge level (high vs. low: OR = 1.217), and political orientation (being a member or activist of the Communist Party of China vs. other orientation: OR = 1.243), cognition on the controllability of COVID-19 epidemic (high vs. low: OR = 1.137), and perceived severity of COVID-19 epidemic (high vs. low: OR = 1.112).

  Conclusion   During the outbreak of COVID-19, the participation in volunteer emergency service was prevalent among the public in China and the public′s participation is significantly influenced by many characteristics of the individuals.