It’s crazy. It all really started for us the last day before the Chinese New Year holiday. At that time, there had been no real confirmed cases in Hong Kong. That day, it changed though.

On 23rd January, it was discovered the first confirmed case of the Corona Virus in Hong Kong. It was found in MY housing compound.

Now my current housing compound is seven towers, each one split into an A side and a B side. We live in 5A, and the Corona Virus was confirmed in tower 1A.

All hell broke loose. The Councilman for our district was standing outside the tower asking that all residents wear masks. There were hazMat teams in full gear spraying all of the surfaces and sidewalks. Everyone seemed to be on edge.

It was official, it was here. Now, I think it is important to know that the man who contracted the virus had been in Wuhan only days before. For the next week, the only confirmed cases of Corona Virus were from people who directly traveled to Wuhan in China.

I had a lot of plans for the kids during our time off. It was finally going to be a chance for us to get out and around Hong Kong again. Up to this point, most nights were spent at home because B wanted to see them. It didn’t happen. Over the last week, Hong Kong started to shut down. They closed our club house and the gym, and it’s been closed since. They closed all museums and libraries and tourist attractions.

You cannot find masks anymore in Hong Kong unless you wait in line for the shipment to arrive. Even then, there is no promise you will get any. People are scrambling to find masks. They have suspended high speed rail service from China, but the border at Lo Wu and Lok Ma Chau are still opened.

Late last week, they suspended school until 2nd March. We are to move to virtual teaching for this period of time. The government moved to work from home for all nonessential workers. In turn, the EDB (the educational body here) adopted this precaution. We are working from home this week. B worked from home last week.

Last night, H’s flights home later this month were cancelled. Airlines are cancelling flights coming in from Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan.

We are safe. I will admit I am worried. I have not let the kids leave the flat very often. We have not taken public transportation since this all blew up last week. The most we’ve done was walk to Ma On Shan Centre to get out of the house as well as other places within walking distance. I know they are getting bored and stir crazy sitting around. I hate it. I want to go to the gym so badly. It is closed for another couple of weeks though.

We had our first morning of virtual learning. Monster had video lessons with her classes. Bub will start that tomorrow. Monkey is pretty much on self directed learning because it is all project based. I checked in with my students this morning. A few of them are fleeing the country within the next couple of days.

I don’t know how much longer this will go on. It seems the government is in this for the long haul. I can’t imagine it can continue like this. I know the notice I received about H’s flights said travel is suspended until end of March from here. I can’t even begin to think about what we should do now. Maybe I should get the kids out of here. Even then though, we would be required to quarantine for 14 days at home. I’m not sure how that would work when you don’t have a “home” to go to.

As of right now, there are 15 cases in Hong Kong. There have been no deaths yet (thank goodness). There has only been one death outside of China in the Philippines, but the guy had been in Wuhan. I am not sure how many of the cases here are from secondary infection. Last week, the only cases we had were directly from Wuhan.

We’ll see what happens. So for now, we are all healthy and well. We are safe and taking precautions.