Hong Kong Coronavirus Isolation Camp-KEYT

A month ago, if I asked me what I was going to do on my 30th birthday, I was locked in the government quarantine The Hong Kong center was not at the top of the list.

However Coronavirus The pandemic has upset many plans-even in cities familiar with turbulence, the recent sudden changes in response to the surge of the Covid-19 incident are staggering.

For me, that means going from Planning Holidays and parties. I am escorted from my apartment by a health care worker in protective clothing and isolated for two weeks in an isolation facility. For everyone else, that means a quick re-evaluation of how to respond to the global crisis, at both the personal and social levels, and how strict measures must be taken to combat the coronavirus. It means a new understanding about.

Holiday camps become quarantine camps

Living in a quarantine with isolated food, temperature checks, and staff wearing PPE feels like a strange combination of being in school, camping, or jail. My facility is located at Reiyu Emun Park, a green holiday village usually east of Hong Kong Island. Currently, about 100 temporary single-room homes are being built neatly on an outdoor sports pitch surrounded by high yellow barriers. Coronavirus.

Since March, the number has skyrocketed. Until recently, in Hong Kong, which had been fighting the virus outbreak since January, the virus appeared to be under control and fewer than 10 new cases are being recorded daily. The city’s rapid public health measures worked, infection rates were kept low, and the population wearing masks and disinfecting hands appeared to be a bit more relaxed.

But relaxation is not a way to control transmission. Almost as soon as the revelers begin to pack bars, restaurants and hiking trails again, whispering rumors have emerged that infected Hong Kong people fleeing Europe and the United States, asymptomatic spreaders, colleagues’ sore throats, and dry friends The coughing voice began to grow loud. Soon, rumors were supported by numbers. Infection increased from 95 on March 1 to 317 on March 22. For a long time, the epidemic “second wave” seems to have hit the city.

After two friends tested positive, I was finally exposed to covid. I couldn’t test myself because I didn’t have any major symptoms. However, while the Health Department believed that I was at risk of being removed for proper isolation and surveillance, a mildly ill friend was taken to a hospital for examination and treatment, and was easily taken home. Contacted a quarantined person.

Not everything about the quarantine process went well. After being told to pack my luggage for a long stay, I was self-isolated for a week, but had no information on when and how to pick me up. An isolated friend was sending videos of travel, rooms, and meals, but a daily call to the authorities came across the same answer-there was a list, I was in it, but recently there have been many positive cases Yes, sorry to know how long I need to wait.

Self-isolation was further complicated by roommates who risked being infected simply by staying in their apartment. In addition to being isolated from friends and colleagues, I had to stay as far away from her as possible. Eventually, he got out of his bedroom, picked up his birth products, wore a face mask and rubber gloves on his way to the toilet, and sanitized everything he touched.

So it was safe to open the door to workers in protective clothing by the time the ministry of health arrived outside my apartment two weeks ago and took me away. He stabbed a thermometer in front of a person next to my wide eyes near my eyes and gathered gaze from passers-by as we walked the road. The minibus already had two passengers, carrying another passenger on the way to the camp. This felt like a surprisingly loose approach to social distance guidelines.

After a long wait and uncertainty and a late night drive across Hong Kong, entering the camp itself felt more like a movie opening than real life. After passing through security checkpoints staffed with more PPE-equipped staff and undergoing another temperature check, they were guided from the bus to the waiting room for a quarantine welcome briefing. In Cantonese and English, it was said that three meals a day could be selected from the menu. You need to measure the temperature at 8 am and 4 pm. You can send a message to one phone number if you have any questions or requests, and call another phone number if you have a health problem or develop coronavirus symptoms. Oh, then we all stayed in the camp for two weeks. In other words, I escaped from isolation only at midnight on my birthday. That was an unexpected development. But considering everything else, I felt such things were no longer important.

The camp was very different from what I expected. Videos from other facilities transferred between WhatsApp groups showed bare rooms in unused apartment blocks without fixtures, leaky toilets, and grate windows. But when we walked through the barrier to the same row of small huts and were given a temporary one-room house key, it felt like the first night in a cozy college dormitory. The new furniture in the room was still labeled Ikea and everything smelled of disinfectant. A welcome pack with noodles, shampoo, shower gel and toothpaste was sitting at the desk next to the kettle and hairdryer. Shortly after unpacking, a WhatsApp message was displayed, asking you to select a weekly cooking option from a huge menu. Free combination of Asian and Western dishes, including vegetarian dishes. The sign behind the door showed even the resident as a “camper”.

Another surprise was that instead of staying in a room for two weeks, of course, whilst wearing a mask, roaming outside between rows of huts for free fresh air and exercise. There are signs around the camp telling us to “avoid gathering” and “prevent the spread of new coronaviruses”, but prisoners can even talk to each other. That’s sound advice (perhaps a few weeks ago everything was working).

Other camp residents exposed to the coronavirus include bar staff, flight attendants, and retired couples living in one of the double-sized rooms across from me. Approximately 130 people can be accommodated and most days have arrivals and departures, but about half of the room was occupied by my last number.

After over a week of isolation, things have settled into a surprisingly normal routine. Meals are carried on trolleys or carts and placed in trays outside the door. (Usually rice, noodles, pasta base, some meat or vegetable sauces and occasional surprises, such as dumplings. Quite stimulating, but mostly edible.) External care packages allowed Your friends and colleagues are sending snacks, drinks, and use internet boosters to reinforce erratic Wi-Fi. Previously, I worked at home for three months. So doing the same thing in the isolation camp did not make a big difference. Hong Kong apartments are small enough that living from one room doesn’t feel like a pain. Also, spot temperature checks and phone calls from camp doctors are annoying, all for my health and for the health of others.

US and British friends have found all this puzzling. If they consider them covid-positive, they are unlikely to be tested and will be instructed to self-isolate at home unless they actually need to go to the hospital. By comparison, being housed in a government facility seems like excessive attention, as it is likely to catch the virus. But this demonstrates how serious the Hong Kong government is in cracking down on imported cases and pushing back local satisfaction. Anyone who tests positive will be hospitalized, even if it has no symptoms and is not a high-risk case, and will be hospitalized until two negative tests are returned. Quarantine measures are in progress. Currently, anyone arriving in Hong Kong from abroad must be self-isolated for two weeks at home or hotel and monitored with a tracking bracelet.

And the top-down effort was matched by Hong Kong residents changing their behavior-different ways of wearing face masks, disinfecting hands, learning from work and home, and social distance, Since January, here is a normal feature of life. Now, the increase in infections from weeks ago seems to be decreasing again. While Hong Kong’s response may seem aggressive to outsiders and sometimes confusing and difficult to understand for those involved, something is clearly working. This combination of decisive government action and broader social pressure could serve as a model for other countries facing a post-blockade future. However, as the rest of the world has participated in the reality of Hong Kong in the past few months, it is difficult to know that number. These changes will be our new normal.

Despite my friend’s longest and rarest quarantine experience, I feel very lucky—not positive, not hospitalized, in good camp, support messages from family and friends I have received an infinite number of colleagues. The secret of the global coronavirus response is isolated. But I don’t feel totally isolated. Hong Kong people seem to be gaining overall strength by experiencing all of these together. So, I may spend my birthday alone. But thanks to the power of a lot of video calling, I don’t spend it alone. And being able to leave the quarantine and finally get home is the best gift for everyone.