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NEWS FEBRUARY 24, 2020 ¦ 23

home in China is a different shops and restaurants remain
thing if you are like me and closed. My vibrant hometown of
have to log on to a VPN to get 8 million people has come to a
anything done. I used to think complete stall. It’s also a terrible
working remotely was easy, and time to get sick otherwise; hos-
all I need was a laptop. But I also pitals barely open and sales of
need a stable internet connec- cough and fever medications are
tion. When I think of working banned. The local government
from home, I think of working on Law.com International’s offers masks to each household,

stories, not spending hours try- Hong Kong bureau chief, but we had to register through
ing to log on to various accounts an online system. We didn’t get
or open an email. The amount of Anna Zhang, had been any.
time I spent wrestling with the For a while, the number of
“loading…” message at the top of visiting her family in
my email page is infuriating. On mainland China when infections in my city increased
some occasions, I spend 20 min- the coronavirus outbreak fast, going from under 50 to over
utes doing something I typically occurred. She is still there. 140 in just a few days; that has
She filed this report. changed this week, the number

get done in a few seconds just to of new infections has gone down
be told that I am no longer on the significantly. That is unfortunate-
internet. ly not the case nationwide, where
Frustration about technical total infections have reached
failures isn’t the only problem. close to 60,000 as of Thursday.
I am constantly reminded that a Some 10% have been cured.
deadly virus that has killed more Despite the obstacles, I am not
than 1,300 people may be closer in Wuhan, I am not in Hubei, and
to me than I can imagine. The district where I live I am not infected. I’m luckier than a lot of people. I
made national news when one patient supposedly get to stay at home, with my parents. So far, more
contracted the virus after a mere 15-second inter- than 300 doctors, nurses and other medical staff
face with another infected patient, both not wearing from my city have volunteered to go to Wuhan and
masks. other places in Hubei to provide assistance; nation-
I literally don’t remember the last time I left the wide, the number of medical volunteers has gone
apartment. My residential compound, as with the over 20,000.
rest of the city, has been in lockdown since Feb. I am home for almost a month now. This is the
4; every household was allowed one person every most time I have spent with my aging parents in a
day—every other day until Monday—to leave and decade. I wish it didn’t have to take this, but spend-
buy groceries once. We are issued a permit that is ing time with my family (and reading books I bought
marked with the dates someone from my family years ago and left at home) is the silver lining for me.
has left the compound. Supermarkets and grocery Knowing that makes it easier and less stressful for
stores are the only places still open, but they al- me to get through my days.
ways seem to be on the verge of running out of Not long before he died, Li Wenliang told report-
stock. My father would come home with the last ers he’d go back to the front lines once he recovered.
bit of cabbage or pork and tell us “dumplings are He was driven by care and compassion. There are
all out.” still mistakes, cover-ups and empty slogans in han-
Life outside the compound gate has been can- dling this public health crisis. We remember him by
celed; the entire subway system was shut down and staying alarmed and calm and continuing the fight.
only a fraction of the bus routes are running; most Paranoia and hatred are not his legacy.
¦

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