62 Days of Lockdown in Wuhan, China: Tragedy, Heroism, and Real Life Stories at Ground Zero of Coronavirus Pandemic
When I flew to my hometown Wuhan from New York City on January 18th to visit my family for Lunar New Year, I didn’t expect to spend 62 days indoor, witnessing the lockdown of 10 million residents and our battle against a previously unknown coronavirus.
The epidemic almost exploded out of nowhere. Overnight no one was allowed to enter or leave the city. Then no one was allowed to leave their homes (except critical roles such as medical workers and police). The city was divided into residential blocks and all resident needs are managed by block administrators. Unlike “stay-at-home” order in other countries, we can’t go grocery shopping, jog outside, walk our dogs or take public transportation. The whole Hubei province with 60 million people (similar to Italy’s population) was in complete lockdown like its capital city Wuhan.
Since the entire city was quarantined, we survived a long period of complete isolation, anxiety, and psychological trauma. We witnessed the bright and dark side of humanity. Many of us lost loved ones or saw first-hand how a family collapsed overnight. Too many tragic stories happened to people we know, way beyond the scale of published death toll. At the same time, a lot of people acted with dignity and…
