I am from Wuhan. Here is the Truth of How We Contain the Covid-19
“Which part of China are you from?” It was June 2020, I was sitting at a Korean hair studio in Melbourne, Australia. The hairdresser asked me. “Err…” I hesitated for a few seconds, “I am from Wuhan.”
To be honest, I was concerned to say this. Due to the outbreak of Covid, Asian hate was spreading with the virus in western countries. It may even scare some people if I tell them where am I from. But I assumed this time should be fine as it is a Korean hair studio, Asians wouldn’t hate Asians right?
“Oh, I know Wuhan, one of my friends is from Wuhan as well.” The Korean hairdresser said, without any judgment or scary feelings. I felt very relieved and even appreciated this young man, then I joked“ Now, everyone knows Wuhan because of Covid haha.”
“ Haha, yes, is your family there? Are they OK ?” He asked kindly. “ Yes, they are fine, the lockdown already eased in April, it’s all back to normal now,” I said. Then I also asked him about the Covid situation in Seoul, and we chatted about other things….
What I didn’t tell this hairdresser is that I actually was in Wuhan during the Covid lockdown. In January 2020, I went back to Wuhan for celebrating the Chinese New Year with my family. As a Chinese migrant living in Australia for 7 years, I usually visit family during this period of time. But this year, no one would expect a 2 weeks holiday turned into a 3 months lockdown.
Unlike Melbourne’s lockdown where you can go out for 5 reasons and have 5 km’s freedom, Wuhan enforced the most strict lockdown pretty much throughout the whole 76 days:
- All public transport ( bus, subway, taxi, ferry, personal automobile, etc) suspended
- All inbound/outbound transport (airplane, train, bus, ship) suspended
- All stores shut down, supermarkets and pharmacies only opened to community workers and volunteers
- All residents (except healthcare workers and other workers work for pandemic purpose) can not leave their residential block, all groceries shopping organized by volunteers
One thing I was frequently asked by my Aussie friends is that how everyone gets food and essential supplies? And is there anyone like a policeman or army who seals the door of your apartment ( most Chinese live in apartments) and not allow you to go out?
First of all, I would like to introduce a concept about how most urban Chinese live. We live in Xiao Qu, which means a residential block comprised of a group of multi-story apartment buildings of between 500 to 4,000 households. Each Xiao Qu has one or more guarded gates, enclosures, and public facilities such as the car park, gardens, kid’s playground, swim pool, and outdoor gym, etc.
During the lockdown, there were property managers or community workers watching the gates of each block to ensure nobody goes out. But within the block, people still can go out to exercise, walk their dog or play with kids (they must wear masks though). So it sounds not too bad, right? It is definitely not like some Westerners thought no human rights in China, people are dying in their homes, etc. I can hear my neighbor’s 4-year-old son playing outside with other kids almost every day during the lockdown. In my block, as there are no confirmed cases, we are quite relaxed to go out and enjoyed the nice weather of early spring in Wuhan.
When the lockdown started, the airport shut down and my return flight was canceled. I first contacted my manager at work in Australia to explain the situation. Luckily I was working for a large corporation then and they could keep my job, extended my contract, and arranged my personal leaves.
Then I applied Australian charter flight and wish I can come back. Unfortunately, the government prioritizes the citizens rather than permanent residents. I heard no response from my application. I even had to reschedule my citizenship test which supposed to be in February. I even do not want to mention all the hustles when I was stranded in Wuhan: asked a friend to take care of my cat, still paid all the bills in Australia, fixed the blocked toilet remotely for my tenant’s mistake, installed cameras to my house as someone broke in…
It’s an extremely bad time for me but I tried to do some good things for my hometown. I joined the local volunteer team in February to help neighbors with grocery shopping and delivery. It was a really rewarding but demanding job. We managed a chatting group of 500 households in our block. Every week we recorded their orders, process online payments, collected grocery bags from the supermarket and delivered them to the collection point. The local supermarket in Wuhan offered a couple of packages such as meat package, veggie package, snack package, cleaning package so it is easier to pack and deliver to everyone.
During the pandemic, I found all the measures such as contact tracing, volunteer support, test, patient moving, and treatment are managed based on the unit of each block. Every block has a small team of community workers to manage everything efficiently. Even today, if an emerged case identified in a building of the block, the building will be sealed and the block will be locked down. The community will arrange the grocery delivery, working/studying at-home stuff for the residents. This particular residential form enabled not only Wuhan but also other cities in China can quickly control and contain the virus.
With busy volunteer work and great family time, the lockdown in Wuhan actually went past quickly. In early April, Wuhan had fewer than 10 daily new cases, all restrictions in Wuhan finally lifted on 8 April 2020. I re-booked my flight ticket, came back to Sydney, quarantined at a fancy hotel ( it was free at that time, I was lucky) for two weeks, and finally came back to Melbourne in late April 2020.
While when I came back to Melbourne, the epidemic just started. Here every household lives in an independent unit, mostly houses, it is really difficult to monitor everyone’s activity. They may travel beyond 5km to meet up with a friend. They may go out to shop even they were waiting for the test result. Probably that’s why with much less population and confirmed cases and so much lower population density compared to Wuhan, Melbourne took 4–5 months lockdown last year to contain the virus.
The lockdowns I experienced in Wuhan and Melbourne made me feel what incredible efforts and achievements that Wuhanese made to combat the deadly virus. When western media didn’t report these wonderful stories about Wuhan; when the discrimination to Asian community happened again and again; when Facebook/Instagram etc are all blocked in China so people there can not speak their voice to the world, I am eager to share some thoughts and stories with you:
When I heard my Aussie colleagues made fun of Wuhan and showed no respect to my hometown, I really wish you know more about this city’s history. As the biggest city and industrial center in central China with 10 million population, the revolution 1911 which ended China’s last imperial dynasty happened right here in Wuhan. The bravery has always been in this city’s blood. The war against Japan, the scary floods, the storms and the heat all tried to kill this city, but every time Wuhan survived and became stronger. As the famous Chinese doctor, Zhong Nanshan said: “Wuhan is the city of heroes.”
When I heard Australians gathered to protest anti-lockdown, anti-mask, now anti-vaccine, I really want to tell you, people in Wuhan still wear masks in the hot summer (with over 30 degrees). It is not compulsory to wear a mask anymore as Wuhan didn’t have any local cases last summer, but people still think they should do it as they know how much it takes to get things back to normal and they cherish this great achievement.
When I saw Aussies rushed to the supermarket and fought for toilet paper, I want to show you these photos, where the local supermarket next to my block was fully stocked during the lockdown. In total, over 30,000 volunteers in Wuhan were super organized to manage the purchase and delivery of groceries for the 10 million people during the lockdown. And I also saw our neighbors shared or exchanged meats, veggies, diaries to help each other in this difficult time.
By the way, the most popular item during lockdown was tofu in my block. Due to limited stock, our volunteer team offered first in, first served to the neighbors. Nobody fought for it, some kind-hearted neighbors even shared tofu or noodles with others if they came late and didn’t get it.
When I heard someone in Melbourne tested positive but still went to work, and caused others to get coronavirus, I really want to tell you about a pet care shop owner who lives 5 minutes’ walk away from his shop and couldn’t run the business during the lockdown. The first thing he did was asking our volunteer team to take care of his foster dog and cats in his shop. He could easily sneak from his block (maybe at night )to take some pet food from his shop and sell to other neighbors, charge a higher price, earn some money but he didn’t do so. Instead, he stayed at home and helped neighbors to buy pet food from online stores ( Some delivery service was still available then). And thousands, millions of business owners, workers in Wuhan stayed at home, followed the guidance, and didn’t complain. As we believe if we all sacrifice now, we will be back to business soon.
When I heard the management issues in Melbourne’s quarantine hotel caused the second wave of the pandemic, I really want to let you know Wuhan doesn’t experience any second wave or lockdown since 8 April 2020. Wuhan local government ran a massive test for every resident for free in May 2020 to make sure the city was safe. The quarantine hotel for overseas travelers managed well and Wuhan barely has any local cases. That’s why my friends in Wuhan can have a nice pool party with thousands of people in summer, and my family can reunion for the Chinese New Year feast again.
While thanks to the closed border of Australia and the 3rd, now the 4th lockdown in Melbourne, I was unable to come back home and enjoy the yummy food cooked by my grandparents this year.
When I heard some officials mixed up an exposure spot for contact tracing and more local cases suddenly came up, I really want to tell you about my cousin, who is a community worker, worked day and nights during the lockdown and she even helped move the corpse of Covid patient in Wuhan. The company my dad worked, built a hospital from scratch for Covid patients within 15 days. My dad, who is an engineer drove 2 hours to the construction site to work 13 times even in snowy weather …
Everyone in Wuhan did their job. They did responsibly, did with care, with support, with the love to this great city, and they did trust each other. That’s how the community contained the virus so quickly.
Now the western world is still struggling in the second or third waves of the epidemic. When the politics blame the Wuhan lab leaks the virus, I am not a scientist and I do not want to comment on the source of the virus, but I would let you know what happened in Wuhan and how the people there stayed together and conquered this crisis.
You may not hear these stories from any western media, you may not believe China has successfully controlled the coronavirus, you may still judge the Chinese government for covering up the fact, but please be respectful to the 10 million people in Wuhan who sacrificed so much, worked so hard and being so courageous in this global pandemic. If they didn’t stay at home to stop the virus from spreading at the begining, the world would be even much worse than now. They absolutely deserve the respect from the rest of the world!
My name is Tracy. A Chinese migrant lives in Melbourne. I am now very proud and confident to say I am from Wuhan, the city of heroes.
This is my first Medium post. English is my second language, sorry about the grammar or any awkward expressions. Please write a response if you have any questions! Otherwise, hope to see you at my next story!
