Epidemic Prevention in China 03 | Under the strictest lockdown in Xi'an, the life of an ordinary person

Dictation / Amber
Finishing / Sam
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(Original post on December 30, 2021)

Editor's note:

On December 30, 2019, Li Wenliang, an ophthalmologist at Wuhan Central Hospital, sent a reminder message in the WeChat classmate group, "7 cases of SARS were diagnosed". Later, he was taken away by the police and signed a reprimand. After working and contracting the virus, he left us on the evening of February 6, 2020. Today, two years later, Xi'an is still implementing the strictest lockdown measures. NGOCN received a life self-report from a citizen of Xi'an. It has been almost two years since the whistleblower left us, but the epidemic has not left us. On the contrary, under the policy of "clearing zero", the weight that falls on every ordinary person is a mountain that is enough to make people breathless.

eating problems

After Xi'an began the strictest lockdown measures, life was indeed difficult. When there was no epidemic in the past, I felt that my ability to deal with the epidemic was not bad. Now the whole city is shut down in an instant, and I can't even get out of my house. Only then did I realize that the time to test my survivability has really come.

From the beginning of the epidemic in Xi'an, I didn't dare to go to crowded places. I basically stopped going to vegetable markets and supermarkets. In case of infection, the consequences will be very great. If my family and friends are in contact with each other, if it brings unsafe risks to them, I will feel very guilty in my heart. In addition, if I become an infected person, I will face the pressure of public opinion. too big. I am also very afraid of going to the hospital, receiving treatment, worrying about the condition, and facing people who can't see their faces in protective clothing every day. This kind of life is even more mentally stressful.

When the city was first locked down, I was still able to go out to buy groceries once every two days, but I had to be very careful considering the risk of infection. Now that the lockdown has been upgraded, I can't even get out of the door, and I'm not allowed to throw rubbish. I heard that some residential properties directly shut down the elevator, and only open for a while when going downstairs to do nucleic acid. The city government said that as long as the community has no problems in the latest round of nucleic acid testing, the two-day one-person procurement policy can be resumed. There is no problem in our community, and it can be restored according to reason. As a result, everyone asked the property, and the property said that it is not working for the time being, and we have to wait for the notice. Later, someone passed a notice from the Secretary of the Municipal Party Committee in the group, which said that the policy of "allowing to go out to purchase" is now directly cancelled, and the government and the property management will cooperate with each household to distribute vegetables for free, but we still have nothing to know when we will receive the vegetables. Know. I saw someone on Weibo saying that some local residents in Xi'an claimed that their home was not short of vegetables at all, but it turned out that the other party was from the family home of the government agency. Pretty ironic. Some people also reported that everyone in the comment area of the live broadcast of the municipal government's epidemic news conference was short of vegetables, but the government directly shut down the comments.

Now, everyone can only buy online. Last night, everyone was guarding Hema Fresh to grab food from the grocery store. As a result, I was out of stock, and my family was almost out of toothpaste. I wanted to buy one, but the delivery guy was robbed in an instant. It was said that I could grab it again at 8:00 this morning. I specially set an alarm clock for 7:50, and started to brush ten minutes in advance, and I didn’t grab it until 8:30. I originally wanted to wait for the nucleic acid results to come out today and go to the nearby convenience store to buy it, but I still don't know when I can go out. Anyway, I still have enough food at home for a day or two, but some of our owners have no food at home and are waiting for the property to deliver. I also saw on Weibo that people from Xi'an living in other areas have not eaten for two days. .

It is a problem for people to eat, and it is also a problem for pets to eat. Some people in the group asked neighbors to borrow cat food. Fortunately, everyone is enthusiastic. People who have raised cats love cats and can’t see that cats have nothing to eat. Everyone said that they have it at home and can give it for free. Of course, life is not just about eating. Some people have no natural gas in their homes; some people say that their heating is not good at all, and the cats are curled up in a ball; some people share a room with roommates and can’t cook or don’t have a kitchen at all. Wait, these are the questions. Most people now rely on neighbors to help each other and rely on the government to solve their specific problems.

Nucleic acid and disinfection vehicles

Xi'an City now requires everyone to stay at home every day and go downstairs for nucleic acid testing every two days. Of course, areas with severe epidemics are now even required to conduct nucleic acid once a day. There are quite a lot of residents in our community, and everyone has to crowd the elevator when they go downstairs to do nucleic acid. The property manager said it was better to call from floor to floor, but the result was to urge "people who haven't come down to do it to go down as soon as possible, the medical staff are very busy, and they won't wait when it's too late!" Everyone in the group was dissatisfied with the property's practice. I squeezed the elevator once a day and it's gone." "What's the use of this isolation?" Some people also accused the person who asked the question: "If you have the ability, go down and manage the property yourself."

In addition, the property also has its own vegetable selling platform. The price of vegetables is not cheap, and the delivery is not timely. Even so, they are always robbed. I have also seen someone posting the price information and contact information of other merchants who are willing to deliver. There are actually many people who make "national disaster wealth".

I have never experienced such a restrictive lockdown myself. The sound of sirens and ambulances whizzing by is rarely heard on weekdays, but now the streets are empty, and the sirens are often blaring, especially harsh. I looked down from the upstairs. In addition to police cars and buses, there were disinfection cars on the street. The roadways in Xi'an are very wide, and now no one is without a car, and it seems wider. The disinfection car drove from the other end of the road to this end, carrying its large iron can, spraying water up and down the ground, and all the way around, and disappeared from my field of vision. I don't know what it does for spraying disinfectant on an empty driveway, maybe it's self-deceiving, or the leader wants to prove that he has done something, which is his "scientific" approach.

All kinds of life, all living beings are suffering

I haven't experienced Wuhan two years ago, but I personally think that the current blockade measures in Xi'an are similar to those in Wuhan back then. Coincidentally, both cities experienced epidemics and blockades when the New Year was approaching. My friends and I both said that we Seems to be back in 2019. A friend of mine is currently banned from school. She is worried that she will be at school this year. I don't think she is joking, because judging from the current number of infections, what she said is likely to come true. Now Xi'an is like this. I read the news that some people walked 100 kilometers to escape Xi'an, and some people escaped by swimming or riding bicycles. Many people regarded this as a joke and thought it was absurd. In the end, others commented that these people are actually afraid of being quarantined and paid. I can't afford the hotel money to do this. "Life is full of suffering, all living beings are suffering", there is nothing wrong with this sentence. Of course, "prosperity, the people suffer; death, the people suffer" is not wrong.

I also have a friend who took the postgraduate entrance examination this year. The night before the postgraduate entrance examination, he went to many places to do nucleic acid tests, but the results could not come out. He and his family were in a hurry. The appearance of nothing to do with him gave him the feeling that he was saying, if you can take the exam, take the exam, if you can't take the exam, forget it. The postgraduate students have to go through too many hardships this year. I see that everyone on Weibo is anxious for them to ask for help, not to mention that they have worked hard for a whole year or even two years. Now they are in such a situation. How bad!

I don't live with my parents now, but I have a friend who currently lives with them. Now I stay at home every day. My parents wake her up at seven or eight in the morning, make her cook and do housework, and don't go to bed before ten at night. It's just bad for the body. She couldn't stand it, and quarreled with her parents and wanted to run away from home, only to find that she couldn't even step out of the house. There is also a friend whose parents have a bad relationship. Although they still live under the same roof, they haven’t said a word to each other for many years. Usually, the three of them go to work and work separately, and home is equivalent to the one where they sleep. The place, now the three of them are staying at home, and my friend is sandwiched between parents who do not speak to each other, saying that it is difficult for him to be a human being. I feel that the epidemic has reflected too many things, and it is a test of family relationship problems in modern society.

The first thing I do when I wake up every morning is to look at the daily increase, look at the trajectory, and look at the newly added medium-risk areas. From the day the city was closed to the escalation of the lockdown, the number of new cases every day was basically still more than 150. To be honest, I don’t know if such a lockdown can really control the epidemic. We are all under such strict control, how can we achieve an increase of close to 200 cases every day? My personal feeling is that the municipal government does not know the specific governance methods at present, they only know the nucleic acid screening round by round. But there are also many problems with nucleic acid testing. For example, the number of people who take the elevator property is not controlled. When nucleic acid testing, people should be separated by one meter or two meters... Medical staff work in three shifts 24 hours a day. They can only eat in the early morning and sleep five times a day. For six hours, will the value of their hard work help prevent and control the epidemic, or is it a waste of energy and time to meet the above requirements?

One of my high school classmates accused the Xi'an government of being too weak in terms of governance in a circle of friends. As a result, many other high school classmates scolded him in the comments for "I don't know what is good or bad" or "go to command if you have the ability." I thought now would be the time to point out the government's fault. I didn't expect that so many locals around me would still be willing to maintain such a festering service organization, thinking that others are "blackening our Xi'an". I feel that there are quite a few problems here. For example, can people distinguish between the government and the hometown? And, I personally think that the hometown is the same as our parents, we don't have to choose, their influence on us is far-reaching. Both my hometown and my parents have advantages and disadvantages. People always look at it with a filter, and it will inevitably be distorted. Some people love to praise and maintain, I can only say that the way we love may be different. The problems in our society are interlinked, and the results presented in front of us are actually like the roots under the soil that are intertwined and connected to each other, constantly growing.

fear of being sick

I read Weibo last night, and some people said that everyone's attitude towards the infected has changed a lot. Back in Wuhan, everyone cared about the patient's physical condition and sincerely hoped that everyone could survive the disaster. Not abusive but complaining. I think what I said is quite right. When others are sick, it is not because they want to take the initiative to get sick. When the trajectory of the case is announced, they all scold people for running around, and they feel uneasy and stay at home, but who has no life trajectory? Even the official bulletin sometimes even writes people's names, which is really absurd. Living in such an environment of public opinion, I dare not get sick. I feel that being ill now is more terrible than committing a crime.

Speaking of illness, people came to the community for testing that afternoon. I saw that there were too many people in the elevator, so I went down the stairs. It was almost 30 floors down, and I was queuing in the snow. I woke up the next day and felt sore muscles in my left leg, because I haven't exercised for a long time because of the epidemic. I googled it, it might be a deep vein thrombosis, and I was shocked. After all, on the third day, I felt relieved that the symptoms were relieved, which was probably caused by too many stairs. Lying in bed for a long time will cause low back pain. Every day, I remind each other with friends to do levator ani training. Currently, I live with low back pain and levator ani. How long will these days of high control last? I always feel that if I stay at home and don’t exercise, sooner or later, various diseases will come to me. Whenever there is something wrong with my body, I wonder if I have some serious disease. Everyone would comfort each other and say that the isolation life is a rest, but because I was troubled by some mental problems myself, I couldn’t sleep well and my sleep time was shortened. Every time I see everyone commenting on Weibo, asking the government to increase the number of quarantine days for inbound personnel, I really feel that everyone doesn't care about people suffering from mental problems! I don't feel so comfortable staying at home, not to mention that people are trapped in hotels, and the people who are really infected don't know how they will be treated.

Now the nucleic acid once every two days is the only time when I can go out to breathe fresh air. Although the smog in Xi'an is still very serious in winter (my mother coughs for three months because of the smog every winter), I can at least see some woods And grass, put yourself in a better mood. Seeing that the shelves of nearby convenience stores are still lacking, and now they are not allowed to go out to purchase, how do people who open stores live? Although the mountains that weigh on us ordinary people are not the same, everyone is too heavy to breathe.

Finally, let's talk about fun. One morning when I was doing nucleic acid work, I saw a foggy blue car driving down the empty street, a bit like the color of a star lollipop. After the driver drove over, he threw off the car and walked away. Then two people in white protective suits sat in the main driver and the co-pilot, turned on the lights, and discussed something in the car. I thought that moment was so magical, as if aliens came to earth and borrowed a car from someone else to go somewhere. Looking at the surrounding environment and what I am experiencing, I am in a trance for a moment, and it does not feel like something that can happen on earth. My basic daily life now is getting up to work, cooking, doing housework, nucleic acid, and the rest of the time is to understand and inquire about various information to see how to solve the problem of lack of materials. These seem basic, but they can also be exhausting at the end of the day. What I want to do most at the moment is to go to the park to drink coffee while listening to the uncle play the saxophone. I want to go for a ride with my friends on the motorcycle, and listen to the teacher who uses the dialect to scold others as "haha".