| Wuhan Girls |
July 23, 2020
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| It was a couple of months ago, he was watching TV. In the program, a young woman who lived in Wuhan reported about her experience during the coronavirus pandemic. At that time, China carried out a strict lockdown; first in Wuhan, then later the neighboring cities, and then in the other cities. It was the first lockdown in the world. People in Wuhan were restricted in their actions, like limiting their moving areas, the number of times to go to the supermarket a week, etc. She was in her late 20s, and had started to write her experience about her life on her blog. She was a social worker and lived alone in her apartment. She reported on her neighborhood things, like vacant parks and other facilities, other residents of her apartment, supermarkets which always lacked food and daily goods, etc. It lasted until the lockdown finished, it was for 76 days! One topic that impressed him was that when she had heard about the lockdown of the city, she immediately went to the supermarket and bought some meat. And after returning to her apartment, she divided the meat into 15 pieces and put them in the refrigerator. This event made him feel the seriousness of the situation, like waiting to be rescued on the mountain  and eating one's last chocolate, little by little. In his country, the restrictions were lax. Supermarkets opened and people could go there freely, although the government recommended going only when necessaryAfter the program, he checked on the internet and found a website in which a journalist from his country introduced another Wuhan girl's diary. She was also in her 20s. She said that she had used a 70 GB data in her PC for about a month after the lockdown. It was for her online classes, job, and net-shopping of daily goods. Maybe she studied at a university and worked a par-time job. She depended on her computer for almost everything. She reported about the situation of the lack of masks and disinfectant. When she received a box from the delivery service, she used disposal plastic gloves and opened the cardboard box in front of the delivery person, and received only what was inside. After the spring vacation, restrictions on companies were relaxed, but a lot of companies kept remote working in compliance with the government's recommendation. She also worked from home for a cellphone company. Her mood was up and down struggling to get food, she wrote that fresh food was hard to buy like vegetables and meat, especially meat. She said that in some cases people were fighting to get meat, although most of the time it was orderly. He thought it was the same at that time in any country. Her heart-ached for the member of the increasing corona patients. She expressed her gratitude toward the medical personnel, including volunteers. She said that she washed her hands so many times that her hands couldn't sense normally. Then Wuhan's lockdown finished. Wuhan is a very big city like Tokyo or New York, and numerous people endured the hardship and overcame it completely. He wanted to express his respect. A doctor in his country once said that quarantine, separating from other people, was the only solution to stop the pandemic. He thought that modern people were too used to convenience, so people couldn't put up with not meeting people, not waiting for deliveries, not going to fun places. Maybe we should learn from the Wuhan girls. |
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*restrict :制限する
*lax :ゆるい
*disinfectant :消毒剤
*disposal :使い捨て
*compliance :法令順守
*orderly :秩序のある
*personnel :職員、人員