Living in Taipei during the novel coronavirus scare

I was never big on new year celebrations, so when the year 2019 finally turned to 2020, I was actually sleeping. As usual, the main fire works in Taiwan at Taipei 101 were splendid. I watched them on Youtube the next day. Unlike in other countries, Taiwan was looking into the future with a lot of concern and anxiety. The presidential elections were merely 11 days away, and once again people were torn between supporting the current ruling party which is pro-Taiwan, or give the pro-China opposition a chance to retake the power. Typically a change of party would be the norm at this point, as Taiwanese usually grow tired of the existing government very fast, but because of what was happening in Hong Kong for so many months prior to the election, Taiwanese grew suspicious and vary of opening up to China again, so they chose to support the current president, and keep the distance to China. Little did they know that this will pay off immensely so soon.

Two weeks later the biggest holiday of the season came around: Lunar New Year! Taiwanese were celebrating another end of their traditional year, and the beginning of the new year, the year of the rat. They say the rat brings wealth and surplus. Being the first animal in the 12 year cycle, it is known to be clever and quick in figuring out what's best for them, living a quiet and happy life. The holidays so close after the election brought calm to the island, because the months-long noisy and divisive campaigns were finally over, and people were reunited with their families. As usual, Taipei was very empty, because a lot of Taiwanese merely work here, but go back to other parts of Taiwan during new year to visit their dear ones. A few days into the holidays news of the novel coronavirus broke out. Some rumors from China were already trickling out earlier in January, but because people were so preoccupied with the election, there was not much media attention dedicated to that.

To nobody's surprise in Taiwan, China kept the whole Wuhan issue under the rug as long as they could, and initially punished people who talked about it on social media instead of actually doing something about it. That was in December. So much time was lost in Wuhan initially, that the virus spread very quickly to alarming levels. They said around 10,000 were infected in Wuhan and 100+ died a few days ago, but nobody in Taiwan believes that. People feel it's much worse in reality, and the virus seems to spread all over China right now. As soon as these numbers were reported, it didn't take long before the first cases reached Taiwan. A lot of Taiwanese students and businessmen work or study in China, many of them in Wuhan as well. They came back for Lunar New Year, and brought the virus with them. 10 cases have been reported so far in various parts of Taiwan, but luckily nobody died yet. However the biggest question is: How many more are infected right now but don't actually know it?

About a week ago lunar new year holidays were over, and people returned to work. Private schools and kindergartens reopened, but public schools decided to extend winter holidays until February 25th. The movement of kids is therefore limited right now, which is really a good measure. The adults however have to return to their jobs and mingle, there's no way around it. Right now the effects of the virus scare are obvious: 80% of people on the streets are wearing surgical masks, including me. Luckily I had a huge stock of them before the scare, because you currently can't get them. They're sold out almost everywhere, the government says new production is on the way. China, the largest mask producer in the world, currently doesn't have enough to supply the domestic market, let alone Taiwan and other countries. Mask prices are skyrocketing. The most ironic part however is that these masks actually don't prevent you from contracting the virus. They are more or less a placebo. Perhaps they will help to lower the risks of various other viruses such as colds and flus, so there's still a benefit to that.

Today I went out for the first time, I mean out in the city. Since the virus scare began some 10 days ago I'm only going out in my own neighborhood. I usually go to the convenience store and back, or walk along a nearby alley to stretch my feet. Being at home all the time gets to you. I used to love to roam around Taipei and enjoy photography, but I did not enjoy Taipei today. I went to Taipei 101 and bought a lot of Western food. I wanted to stash myself for a possible major outbreak. Since the virus can be inside a person's body between 1-14 days before the symptoms show, we're not sure right now how many people will get sick in this period after so many just returned from their lunar new year holidays. By mid February we will have a clearer picture, as we will see if the infections went significantly up during this time.

The Taipei Metro was half empty, everybody stuck to themselves. It was a very unpleasant feeling, everybody is frightened, staring at their smartphone, either reading the latest news, or drowning their mind in various mobile games. I can't stop googling "Taiwan" news once per day to get the latest update on the infection cases. Yesterday and today no new case was reported. It's a strange feeling. Part of me was happy, but part of me is still scared. Taiwan is an island, a country of several island. If you block or limit air and ship traffic, you're much safer than all the other neighboring countries of China like Vietnam or South Korea, but how much can you actually shut yourself off from the world? At the same time you need to be connected to the world, you need to continue to work, study, live, because the economy has already taken a hit, the job market which is usually very lively after lunar new year, is now frozen. Nobody is investing now, nobody is spending on consumer goods. The immediate future is possibly scary, because we don't know what will be.

Sometimes I think about a major outbreak before I go to bed. During the day I try to distract myself with so many trivial things. I watch a lot of sports, various drama, I try to relax. The mind is not relaxed, but it plays along. There's nothing I can do now, and it's scary. It's very possible that the outbreak in Taiwan will be very limited. But I can't be sure. When I look at the map, I see that Wuhan is closer to Taipei than it is to Beijing. But Taipei is on an island. That small patch of water called the Taiwan Strait prevents us from having a land border. That and the fact that Chinese tourists didn't flood the streets of Taipei for lunar new year like they used to before 2016 when our government was very opened up to China. Being so cut off from the rest of the world finally pays off in a way. But only, if we survive this virus scare without a major outbreak. I hope it's soon over. I don't like to be scared.

Map: The distance between Wuhan and Taiwan is 627 mi / 1010 km.

Top photo: Taipei 101 employees exiting the building during lunch break.