Coronavirus staycation

It’s Tuesday, January 28 and the no nicknamed coronavirus has reduced our Chinese New Year holiday to a staycation. It started out simple enough. A dozen reported cases of a SARs like virus in Wuhan. Nothing much to worry about. But then a dozen became a few dozen. And then it was reported that the infection rate was somewhere between 1.5 and 3.5. That’s exponential growth and I thought this could become a big problem. Wuhan and the province of Hubei banned anyone from leaving the city. A CNN reporter desperately tried to get out. A NY Times reporter desperately tried to get in. The next day, more cities in Hubei were closed off. The day after that, Sabrina’s hometown of Xiangyang, the second largest city in Hubei, was added to the list. We went to the Beijing train station, past the attendees in hazmat suits, and got full refunds. It would be a Beijing staycation.

We watched movies. 1917, The Farewell, Ford v. Ferrari, Marriage Story. 1917 was Lydia’s favorite. Marriage Story was mine. Schools started to send out notice to parents giving advice about avoiding infection which includes washing hands, eating plenty of fruit, and getting plenty of rest. When in doubt, rest. Three separate work emails from three separate work authorities with similar messages came in. Then messages that said, in effect, “don’t go to Wuhan”. Then messages that said, “please tell us if you went to Wuhan”. Messages from school, work, banks, housing. The numbers when up. 1000 infections, 1500, 4500. I wasn’t great at math in school but I know this arc. I’m not sure what the official definition of pandemic is but with this curve 300,000, 500,000, 3,000,000 infections doesn’t sound unreasonable. There has been reports that local officials mishandled things at the beginning. Or that it was central officials. Who knows. But, I do think the country is responding. Government, organizations, and people. Government has restricted all of Hubei travel (57mil people), travel that can’t be tracked, and have extended to holiday to try and cover the incubation period. Organizations are following suite. Apartment complexes, including Yang’s are restricting access. Companies are helping track down where their employees have been. Citizens are staying inside, wearing masks, and donating supplies.

Beijing, typically quiet during new years, is especially quiet this year. More and more restaurants closed due to concerns for it’s workers, buses are empty, people lift masks between sips of beer. Personally, I am not worried. Mostly, I am bored. Thinking about watching the movie Contagion tonight. I know that could all change if a neighbor gets infected or if the number of cases in Beijing expands.

The holiday will last another week. Not the most joyous of new years. Then maybe another week of working from home. Plenty of time to get though the full list of oscar nominees.