SNAPSHOTS OF LIFE IN QUARANTINE

I was preparing breakfast for my chil- dren on April 27 when a message popped up on WeChat， a Chinese super-app， stating that our compound would be locked down—effective immediately. One of our neighbors turned out to be a close contact of someone who’d tested positive for COVID-19. Two days later， the situation got worse as we were informed we’d have to stay indoors， i.e.， inside our apartment. Compound management would be overseeing food delivery and garbage collection.

Fortunately， my wife and I can easily work from home while the children can follow their classes online. Their study schedule was in perfect order and fleshed out with some simple physical exercise like aerobics and rope skipping.

Aside from organizing rounds of door-to-door nucleic acid testing， management also sent us COVID-19 antigen home test kits which soon became our children’s new form of “entertainment.”By May 1， all residents had tested negative and life got back to normal. BR

（Text and photos by Wei Yao）