I live and work in China. We're far from Wuhan but we've had cases pop up out here in our own apartment complex/town/down the block, but the entire community has never been put on the restrictions that I see and read about in the States. We've been dealing with a 'soft lockdown' situation since mid-January. As a teacher I'm able to work online, but most regular workers have been at their jobs for at least a month now. Places like McDonald's and 7-eleven never closed. We have yet to have any shortages of any kind and there was no panic buying. We knew that the States would both over and under react to the thing and it seems they have.
There have been instance where my "American Senses" started tingling. We are required to wear the masks, we are required to have our temperatures taken and the powers that be cancelled large gatherings when the outbreak first started. Overall though, we're generally left to our own devices. Who's to say if these precautions helped stop the spread of the virus or not, but nobody in my family has gotten sick.
The government didn't shut down restaurants or stores--some individuals who were sick kept their shops closed because they were ill, the movie theaters were and unfortunately still are closed, and our local shuttle busses were shut down for a while, but apart from Wuhan itself, nowhere near the level of what's happening in the States, and it shouldn't be a controversial statement to say we're living in a communist country where the thing originated. Why is the American government taking such extreme actions? I can only think of it as a power grab.
Local teachers are returning to the empty campus that is my school this Monday to prepare for a full return. International teachers--who are in country--and the students themselves may return on the week of the 27th pending the success of the trial run. Once this happens--if there are no snags or "second wave"-- I would say that we'll be almost completely back to normal. The only thing that would remain to be done is to open the borders back up to international visitors and to get the movie theaters running again. That's a Great Wall of Text just to say, "Hang in There". It's not quite the end of the world yet.
