Well, yesterday it happened. The first person to die of the Coronavirus in Hong Kong. He had travelled to China. He was young. Around 40 I believe. They said he had other health issues as well, and I know that is part of this. The very young and the very old tend to be the most vulnerable. Those who are immunocompromised are at increased risk (thank goodness my brother didn’t come for this holiday).

The part that is a little concerning is with this death came the first two cases of Coronavirus that didn’t originate from China. They contracted the virus out in the community.

Up to this point, a comfort for Hong Kongers has been that this has not been spread from Hong Konger to Hong Konger (in this situation, I consider myself Hong Konger because I live here. Obviously, I am not Cantonese). It has stayed within family units and stemming from travel to Wuhan specifically or a hospital in China. Now it has spread outside in random places.

So that’s where we are right now. It’s interesting to see the response from the government. They did finally close down the border at Lo Wu and Lok Ma Chau yesterday, but other points of entry remain open between China. The people of Hong Kong have begged for the border to be closed. Other countries are refusing travel from Hong Kong (as well as Mainland China, Macau, and Taiwan). One teacher took 36 hours to get back from Vietnam because they banned travel to and from Hong Kong while she was in the air. She was finally able to get here. I haven’t heard the story yet.

School has been a tricky situation. Many of my students I work with think that this is just an extended vacation. The Hong Kong government is talking about extending our school year into the summer. If they don’t want that to happen, they need to be doing their schoolwork. My youngest daughter has been doing virtual learning with constant video classes throughout the day. My son’s school is using the Google Suite to deliver instruction. I think our company is doing the best we can in this situation.

So we’ll see what happens.