EDITOR’S NOTE: Shelby resident Demrie Alonzo and her 15-year-old son decided last August to travel to Shandong Province, China. He would attend school and she would teach. Last week she shared her story about the conditions there, approximately 800 miles from the epicenter of Coronavirus outbreak. Her first story was published on Feb. 10. Richland Source asked Demrie to update their saga to give us a local look at an international crisis.
It’s been a tough few days. The lockdown has gotten tighter.
I now have to carry around a piece of paper with the official province seal on it. On the back is a list of my temperatures as they are taken. I was told I could be stopped anywhere at any time to show this piece of paper. They are trying to keep track of everyone.
Yesterday I needed to get some medication from the pharmacy that is just outside our gate but it wasn’t a day that I was normally allowed out. I begged the guard and he watched me walk to the pharmacy and walk back. But he was very kind.
I think the strangest thing when you are out is that everyone has a mask on. You don’t realize how dependent you are on the expression of others. It’s almost like a sea of robots. I find it intimidating.
When I went to the grocery store this last time the person taking our temperature was wearing even more protective clothing than before. Also now they spray our hands and arms with a disinfectant.
Food prices have definitely gone up. Not dramatically but noticeably. Also there is less of a variety of things to get. I go every other day since I can only carry a few things on my electric bike.
Since our washing machine is back at the dorm at the school where we were staying, we have not done laundry in over a month. I am able to hand wash underwear and socks but that is it.
My son is busy with his online classes and I am busy teaching online classes so our days are full. However the isolation is getting to us. We cannot even go for a walk.
I did hear that Shanghai schools are closed until at least May. They are about the same distance from the epicenter as we are. But our province has only said schools will be closed through February at this time. However my Chinese friends have all said they don’t think school will start until May or maybe not even at all this semester.
The government has required all schools to offer online classes so many students are doing that.
Many of my students are stuck where they were, visiting relatives outside of where they lived. One student hasn’t seen her dad since Jan. 17. He had remained at home to work. You can see the strain in the faces of some of the older children.
So we wait in limbo to see what each day brings. The numbers keep going up for the dead and infected. All we can do is wait.
LATEST NEWS ON CORONAVIRUS
CBS News is reporting the global tally was more than 73,000 confirmed infections on Tuesday. The arrival on Monday of 14 infected American evacuees from a cruise ship in Japan brought the total number of cases in the U.S. to at least 29. As of Tuesday morning the disease had killed at least 1,874 people, all but five of them in mainland China.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told Aljazeera the the outbreak – which began in the Chinese city of Wuhan in Hubei province – is not yet out of control, but it has become a “very dangerous situation.”
According to the New York Times, more than 10 percent of the country’s population (about 150 million people) have restrictions on how often they can leave their homes.
