By Julie He and Ingrid Yeung
Chinese New Year or Spring Festival is the most celebrated holiday in China. Creating a harmonious atmosphere New Year traditions such as visiting relatives, attending lunar dinner, and going to the temples for good fortune bring everyone closer to each other to welcome the upcoming new year. During this time of the year, the roads are filled with parades of people celebrating. Likewise, the train stations and airports are flooded with people eager to return to their families. However, in the spring of 2020, the streets and squares of China were vacant and abandoned. The reason? Coronavirus. As the name suggests, Coronavirus is a virus that has made headlines everywhere. It closed off places in China and caused numerous deaths. What started as a seemingly insignificant flu turned into an epidemic that has found its way around the world.
(The New York Times, 27 February 2020)
The disease is highly infectious and spreads through human to human contact. Even contact such as touching a surface that another infected person touched could result in coronavirus. The virus can take up to two weeks before symptoms show up. Even then, they appear as common cold symptoms such as fevers, coughs, or breathing difficulties. If severe enough, the virus could cause pneumonia, kidney failure, or even death. This deadly disease originated from a city in China called Wuhan. When the virus first spread in Wuhan, people from the city did not realize the severity of the situation and flew to other places. It quickly spread and has already infected more than 80,000 people. There have been around 3,000 deaths worldwide, and most deaths are from China.
Even after the New Year Holiday, most people in China are not able to go back to work and to school. Most offices and companies stay functioning through online communication and working, but some have reopened recently. Schools have closed their campuses and class-room based learning due to the outbreak. They have also asked parents and students to fill out health forms to report their current health conditions and whether or not they have any symptoms of the coronavirus. In Shenzhen, some international schools and most public schools provide online-courses and long distance learning for the students starting from February. Through email and social media, the students are able to discuss with their peers and teachers outside the classroom. Thus, the students back in China have to adapt to a different approach of learning, and some have gotten used to the new learning environment quickly while others struggle to keep up with the workload.
QSI International School in China is one of the schools that have been utilizing the online learning method and long-distance classroom. Nana, a current Sophomore in QSI, says that online learning is not as easy as it sounds like. The workload for her has not gone down, but instead she has more work than if the school is opened. She also felt that although online learning is very convenient, there are many things that simply cannot be achieved through the internet, for example, hands-on project and group work. Many students have expressed that they would like to go back to school as soon as possible. However, that cannot happen if the virus outbreak persists. Currently, the schools are expected to resume in late March. However, as most school announcements say, the reopen date of school is still subject to change.
It seems like the epidemic is still distant to St. Mark’s, being an independent school in Massachusetts. However, the World Health Organization has already declared the coronavirus disease as an official epidemic. With increasing cases confirmed in the US, the government has started to take precautions and inform its citizens to be aware of the diseases. There is little we can do, but the most we can do to fight against the coronavirus is to stay healthy. Washing our hands often and avoiding sharing water bottles and dining utensils are the two most basic and important things that we can do to help. Another thing that will be helpful to combat the virus is to eliminate the spread of fake and exaggerated information of the coronavirus disease outbreak. It is a severe and deadly disease and it originated from China. However, making fun of the students from an area of the outbreak or joking with the topic of coronavirus is not appropriate. At this time, support and encouragement is the most vital to the students who are worrying about their family and friends back at home.
Because of the outbreak, students are separated from families and are unable to visit them. Parents are concerned for their kids who are thousands of miles away. Here at St. Mark’s, we have many international students that are unable to fly back to see their families for the upcoming spring break. Students have to find last minute places to go for two weeks. Luckily, the school offers solutions such as the Boston trip or the Arizona trip. However, it does not offer the freedom that comes with going home and having a free schedule. Students are worried about their families who are at risk of contracting the disease. Likewise, parents are worried for their kids who they are unable to see and take care of. Everyone is worried for each other and hope it will be over soon.