The first-hand accounts of those living at the center of China’s worst Covid-19 outbreak since Wuhan in 2020
Ms. Liu, teacher at a primary school in Gaoxin district
In my school, the pandemic prevention and control work has become routine. When the first confirmed case was reported in Xi’an [on December 9], the school emphasized again that all students, teachers, and parents must wear facial masks, and parents must pick up their kids in a designated area outside the school. A parents’ meeting and a cross-country race were cancelled.
It was at midnight of December 20 when we got the notice to suspend classes, and the teachers got out of bed immediately to inform the parents. At 8:30 the next morning, online classes began. Only teachers came to the school campus that day, and the weather was beautiful. I walked around the school feeling very sad, because the pandemic felt endless and the campus used to be so alive.
Many people think teachers get a holiday when in-person classes are suspended, but that’s not really true. We’re still doing online classes to this day. The teachers seem to be busier than before, because we need to take nucleic acid tests, report our student’s temperatures everyday, and do a lot of extra work. One colleague said to me after the pandemic got under control, the first thing she would do is go to the hospital, because there’s a tingling in her ear that’s getting worse and worse, but she’s too busy to go get it checked out.
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