Coronavirus Lockdown

22^nd January - 24^th February 2020

Just as I was leaving Saipan the news of the Coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan.  My original plan was to return to my flat for a few days, wash clothes, have a short rest and fly to Urumqi to visit my girlfriend for the new year.  Very quickly things started to get worse and this was not going to work...  I got as far as spending the evening in the Holiday Inn near Tianjin airport, but in the evening we decided it was best that I not fly across the country should I get stuck there.  Things increasingly started to tighten in Wuhan.  Concerned that she may become trapped in far west China, Mandy flew back a few days later and came to stay with me.

And so the days rolled by.  At first we could go out to the shops, but most never reopened after the Chinese New Year.  Long distance deliveries from Taobao and those relying on the postal system ceased a fortnight prior to the New Year (yes, they close the postal system for a fortnight) and remained closed into February.  Takeaway deliveries ceased, most restaurants were not open and then even the big chains closed, and the delivery drivers were no longer allowed onto the estate. Places increasing wanted you to wear a mask (regardless of their efficacy) such as public services, shops and the school before they closed to staff.  Shops ran out of masks and hand sanitisers.  We were fortunate to find one store that had a few remaining.  Mostly throughout this period fresh produce like fruit and veg have been in constant supply.  But the bread ran out, bakeries had closed for the new year and as factories were closed none was like to arrive until early February.  The school term was suspended a fortnight until late February.

They started taking temperature readings on the gate to the estate in an informal manner, and then there started to be more and more staff out there, recording names, phone numbers or anyone coming into the estate.  But the irony now was that there was no where worth going anyway, everything was shut.  Taxis were strictly local only.

Also staying was Mandy’s lovely doggie, who helps keep us company.  We could take her for frequent walks to stop her chewing my plants.  Chinese people are bizarrely frightened by dogs.  If she were to run up to someone they put their arms in the air, shout or get on a wall to escape them, yet she doesn’t bite or bark, or even touch them!  There some great fear of disease, especially rabies.  She’s clearly not a wild dog, or with any likelihood of having rabies, The fuss made is idiotic.  Anyway, Mandy had to return to Beijing as her school was due to start at the end of February and they were insisting everyone do a fortnight isolation when returning to Beijing.  She was searching for a taxi for days but all had been closed down, eventually she got one but it costs three times the normal rate.  When she got to her estate she was issued with a card dated upon return that she would have to wait two weeks before she could turn in for a replacement that would allow her outside.  As of writing this, she has only recently taken her first trip outside in a fortnight.  Meanwhile I was now on my own for the foreseeable future.

And then things started getting much worse.  The UK started chartering flights to get people out of Wuhan, but there was confusion with the Chinese authorities preventing partners and children of British citizens leaving if they held chinese citizenship.  I cannot imagine anyone bugging out and leaving their kids behind, so of course people still remain there.  Then the Foreign Office ‘advises’ all Britons leave ‘if they can’.  The reality is that the taxis are local, and the wisdom of taking public transport or going into a crowded airport is highly questionable.  Leaping on a plane to fly home, and living in the UK isn’t cheap and for all I knew, I could be flying back within a week or two.  It simply didn’t seem practical, or worthwhile.  Some others on the estate decided that it was worth going home, one chose to take the train, another had family drive them to the airport.  In total, about half dozen of us from school remain in the area, everyone else is abroad.

I think the UK government has been behind the curve on a lot of this.  They were slow to charter flights out of Wuhan, they were later than most to fly people off the quarantined ship held off the coast of Japan.  When one of my friends flew home from Beijing there were no checks of any sort at the airport, no advice given.  Yet two days after this they announced that it was a major health risk.  Other than the advice to leave, the Foreign Office has done nothing and given no helpful advice.  As a friend opined, they have told us to leave so as to wash their hands of those remaining should things turn for the worse.

I said that the shops were mostly well stocked.  But then the water ran out.  For days I could not buy fresh water in the shops, thankfully I had thought to stock about 30 litres worth in the flat.  The water in China is not safe to drink, even when boiled as if can contain pollutants and chemicals not removed by boiling like bacteria.  I was going to update this blog almost immediately after the piece on Saipan but then the VPN stopped working.  Appears that information control and censorship is currently high on the agenda of the Chinese Government while thousands are infected by a disease with a 2% fatality rate (if statistics are to be believed).  There are a lot of nasty rumours online and it would be nice is the World Health Organisation and Foreign Office would explicitly say they have confidence in the data given out by Chinese government.  I feel they repeat it, as there’s nothing better to go on, but give little indication of their faith in them.  It’s not necessarily malicious, if they run out of testing kits then the statistics will be affected by insufficient detection.  All that aside, having all the VPN blocked and suddenly unable to contact people in the UK is distressing for everyone.  It worried my family and friends that I suddenly stopped communicating for nearly a week, and I need that communication for my own sanity.

Anyway, water arrived back in the shops and I have a healthy stock. I cant get sausages, bacon, cheese and other nice things from Walmart, that’s all run out.  But delivery services have very gradually started to open, Taobao opened up again and I was able to buy in some model kits again to build.

This is all I do now, do online lessons for school, watch TV and make model kits.  Sure, it seems a lot but I need a selection.  The opening for school was pushed back to mid March, and then again to the 22^nd.  I don’t know how this can work... as much as we try to do in online classes, it’s no substitute for teaching in person.  I realise now that if we do not return before the end of March... it leaves only April to complete the content of the course, and teach and practice the content for the practical exams. Where does revision and a full mock exam fit into this?  They have only done a mock exam at Christmas that covers the inorganic part of the chemistry course.  We shall have to see, but it seems like a long way out of the woods yet.