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China is on a Frenzied Lockdown

And I’m here in Shanghai, witnessing it play out

Jordan Fraser
5 min readJan 24, 2020
Photo by CDC on Unsplash

I’m sitting on the couch in my downtown Shanghai apartment on a cloudy Friday afternoon. It’s a national holiday today, but I’m awaiting a work call from my boss.
She’s obligated to step away from her family celebrations and call all of us to inform us of the latest movements of the coronavirus sweeping the nation.

The newest strain of coronavirus that originated in Wuhan has spread across China and to at least 6 other countries including the United States. The virus causes a lot of the same symptoms as the SARS virus including pneumonia, and it’s not treatable by antibiotics.

I actually wanted to go to the doctor today to have my finger checked out, it got swollen last night so I think it might have an infection of some kind.

But my finger will have to wait, as I’ve been informed by my colleagues that the public hospitals aren’t seeing anyone unless you suspect you’ve caught the coronavirus.
I’d pay for a private hospital, but they’re not answering my calls. I’m guessing they’ve closed for the holiday.

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Jordan Fraser
Jordan Fraser

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