MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 15th May, 2020) After staying under home isolation for more than 130 days with her parents and son over fears of contracting the new coronavirus, Chen Guo, a 45-year-old local resident of Wuhan, finally decided to go outside for a short shopping trip on Tuesday because she wanted to pick up a birthday cake for her father's 75th birthday.
However, as soon as Chen heard of the local government's plan to conduct polymerase chain reaction (PCR) COVID-19 tests for all residents of the city, she faced a new dilemma: how to protect her parents when they have to wait with others in line for hours to be tested.
"I have already made a plan for this. I told my parents that they had to wear adult diapers when they go downstairs to wait for the PCR tests. They may inevitably want to go to the bathroom while waiting for the tests. But for them to come home to use the bathroom, it would risk contaminating our home because we don't have time to disinfect them properly," Chen told Sputnik during a phone interview.
After a cluster of patients exhibiting pneumonia-like symptoms was identified at a market in Wuhan in late December, the city became the world's first COVID-19 epicenter. To contain the deadly virus from spreading, the city was placed under complete lockdown from January 23 to April 8.
The strict lockdown measures helped Wuhan avoid recording new infections for 35 days until May 9, when an 89-year-old resident was confirmed to have contracted the virus. Five of the patient's close contacts were also confirmed to be infected the next day.
The resurgence of six new COVID-19 cases in Wuhan led the local government to order city-wide PCR tests for all residents within 10 days. While the mass testing plan could help identify all potential COVID-19 cases in the city, residents like Chen, who tried her best to isolate her family, expressed concerns over risks of infections in lines to get tested.
"My family has not left our home for more than 130 days and nobody had any symptoms. In early April, all the recovered patients in Wuhan were discharged and came home. The science can't even explain whether they could still have the virus in their bodies. Even if they don't have symptoms anymore, they may still infect others. Why do I have to risk my family as lab rats?" Chen said.
Chen stressed that she was more worried about her parents becoming infected because her father had cerebral hemorrhaging and high blood pressure, and her mother was diabetic.
"To be honest, if one of my parents has fallen victim of the new virus, my whole family is done because which parent would you choose to take care of? That's why I made sure they both took their medicines on time to avoid situations in which they� would need to seek medical assistance in hospitals. If the ambulance came and took one of them away, that person may not be able to return home because they could face risks of COVID-19 infection at the hospitals," she said.
Chen explained that her concerns resulted from several family clusters of COVID-19 infections in Wuhan and, in some extreme cases, whole families died.
Chen's family was aware of the health emergency a few weeks before Chinese authorities openly acknowledged the seriousness of the new coronavirus on January 20 because her brother worked as an oncologist at one of the top hospitals in Wuhan. When the hospital became overwhelmed with patients with pneumonia-like symptoms, Chen's brother was reassigned to lead the respiratory department in his hospital to treat the influx of patients on January 11.
"In the beginning, my brother said he couldn't tell us all the details, but could only say the situation was very serious. He began to ask us to order a lot of food and other basic household supplies from the internet. He told my parents that that they should not go outside and must wear a mask if they wanted to go out. But we didn't really understand what was going on," she said.
After treating the infected patients, Chen's brother also began to develop a fever and started to self-isolate at home. When Chen's mother wanted to visit her brother on January 22, her mother could only greet her brother through the door.
That visit to her brother's home was the last time Chen's family went outside before the lockdown of Wuhan started on January 23. Instead of following the tradition to host a big family reunion dinner to celebrate Chinese New Year's Eve on January 24, the family could only send greetings to each other through video chat.
Thanks to her brother's early warnings, Chen's family was well prepared for the prolonged lockdown. They bought a lot of meat, vegetables and as many as 600 eggs, which allowed them to not have to resupply food until March 10.
During that period, Chen's family did not even open their door. When local community staff members came to measure temperatures for all residents in the neighborhood, Chen's family printed a notice and slipped it from under the door. The notice said the family had been under complete self-isolation and hoped the community workers understand their reasons for not willing to open the door.
Instead of getting their temperatures measured by the community workers, Chen's family connected with the workers who were standing outside of their door through video chat. The family measured their temperatures live on the video chat and the community workers obtained the results without opening the door.
When Chen's family finally had to order food delivery, she spent about $183 to make a bulk purchase of dozens of Pounds of meat and vegetables.
When the food was delivered to her door, Chen placed an ultraviolet light in the hall way after the delivery person left. She waited for another hour for the UV light to kill any potential viruses before opening her door to take the food inside. When she was opening the packages of food, she wiped down every package with alcohol-based disinfectant.
Before Chen went out shopping this Tuesday, her family had only opened their doors four times to collect food deliveries during the more than 130 days of self-isolation.
Unsurprisingly, Chen also took extreme precautions during her short shopping trip to a nearby supermarket. She wore rubber gloves, an N95 mask and sunglasses when she was outside.
When she returned home, she first soaked her rubber sandals in a basket of chlorine-based disinfectant she left outside her door. When she came inside, she asked her family members to stay in their rooms and took off all her clothes and wrapped them in a plastic bag. She sprayed the entrance with alcohol-based disinfectant before jumping into a shower right away.
"This is basically what frontline healthcare professionals do when they return home after treating infected patients. This is also how they could avoid becoming infected after working in such dangerous environment. I just followed the same procedures," Chen said.
Chen has developed a successful career and was working as the vice president of a medical supplies company in Wuhan when the COVID-19 epidemic hit the city. Her job offered her the opportunity to stay in touch with doctors at various hospitals in Wuhan.
"I don't really pay attention to the official statistics of daily COVID-19 infections in Wuhan. I'll only feel comfortable to go out and resume some social interactions when my doctor friends have told me that there are no patients with pneumonia-like symptoms in the hospitals in Wuhan," she said.
Similar to others who faced financial difficulties because of the strict lockdown measures, Chen's company was also forced to cut back the staff members' earnings. Her salary dropped from around $7,000 a month to about $173 per month, which was the minimum wage set by the government.
When her company wanted her to go back to work in early April, Chen felt the risks were still too high and decided to quit her job.
"My brother had already faced a lot of risks at his work. If I also have to go out to work every day, I can't live with my parents and take care of them anymore because I don't want to risk infecting them. After discussing with my family members, I decided to quit my job because someone has to make such sacrifices in one family," she said.
Thanks to her previous higher earnings compared to the average local monthly income of $1,160, Chen said her savings could last the family for over a year without having to find a new job.
"I have always tried to manage my finances and never overspent. I never bought luxury bags like some of my staff members who made much less money than I did. I don't have any outstanding mortgages or loans for my car.� That's why I'm not too worried about finding a new job soon. With my experiences, it wouldn't be too difficult for me to find a similar high-level job when the epidemic is over," she said.
To deal with the physical and psychological fatigue from prolonged period of home isolation, Chen forced herself to walk at least 1,000 steps in her 1,200-square-foot apartment.
"I started to watch many old movies, including all seven movies of the Harry Potter series. I also became much more active on social media and kept in touch with old friends and colleagues online. I have adjusted to this new lifestyle pretty well," she said.
Chen's father loved photography and used to visit different places to take pictures. Today, her father continued to take pictures every day, but only from the windows and balconies of their 14-floor apartment.
"My father is not bored because he can still share all the pictures he took with his friends online. He was very active in monitoring the situation downstairs in my neighborhood. My mother just began to do household cleaning everyday as her daily exercises," she said.
Chen added that her 22-year-old son had always preferred to stay home more than going out with friends.
"He's always been into military hardware and comic books. That's why it's easy for him to continue to communicate with friends with the same hobbies. He even started to write his own comic book and had already finished thousands of words," she said.
Chen submitted the forms on Wednesday for her family to take the COVID-19 PCR tests. After the tests, Chen said she would continue to try her best to keep her family under home isolation until at least the end of June.
She will only begin to meet with friends for dinners by July, if the situation concerning patients with pneumonia-like symptoms at local hospitals meets her expectations, Chen added.�
