A year ago today, we received official notice to go into lockdown in our apartment in Shanghai for Covid controls

The initial order was for 48 hours - we ended up being in lockdown for 70 days, a bleak time that also covered our wedding anniversary and all four of our birthdays We spent the day remembering the lockdown, but - more importantly - catching up with friends and neighbors

First stop was Century Park for a morning of fun - it was a cold and grey day, but we still had lots of fun with neighbor kids

Our symptoms continued to worsen this morning and we all tested positive for Covid today - terrible timing for the kids’ Christmas

It’s been going about as we expected: Our 3 year old has almost no symptoms other than a stuffy nose. 8 year old had a fever and cough but seems to be already recovering

It’s hit me the worst - high fever, chills, insomnia, cough, etc.

So far no one has had anything close to serious problems though - a big relief

It’s hard to explain how significant the recent changes are for China’s Covid controls
 
It’s been a quick and emotional transition from the bleak monotony of a year of lining up for testing, scanning QR codes everywhere, and suppressing a constant fear of central quarantine The controls are, from the messaging of the government, not a reversal or turnaround, but a new “optimized” approach

This weekend I’ve had more friends, family, and colleagues reach out to connect in a long time, mostly around two big stories in China right now:

The Covid quarantine bus crash, and

The Chinese CDC’s guidance to avoid contact with foreigners because of Monkeypox risks The bus crash has caught the entire country’s attention

Details are still being confirmed, but it looks like there are 27 dead and many injured, after they were all being taken away to Covid quarantine camps in the middle of the night

https://twitter.com/SixthTone/status/1571395861984464901

It’s been difficult figuring out the logistics, but we are still hoping to get back to the US this summer for a holiday

All of my Chinese friends are incredulous - warning me that the US has completely given up on:

Mass shootings
Covid
Homelessness
Climate change crises Rampant crime
Protection of basic human rights, especially for women
Racism

And others in a very long list

I can’t put my finger on why, but today feels like a big turning point in Shanghai

People are out shopping, eating, working - lots of energy everywhere I went today

A great feeling I went to all three of our offices in different districts, I got stuck in traffic, I got steaks delivered within an hour of ordering, I felt the wind through my hair of an open car window

We’re close to a month out of Covid lockdown now in Shanghai

Some things are back to normal

But as some things get back to normal, it becomes clear what things cannot get back to normal

And it becomes clear what has been lost, or is being lost in the aftermath During lockdown, I heard of several suicides in Shanghai

Most were second or third hand through social media, but some close friends also told me first hand of neighbors, colleagues, or former classmates

We never had anything like that where we are, at least during the lockdown

18 days out of Covid lockdown in Shanghai

Things continue to move towards normal, at least for us

I took the kids to the zoo today, which was a lot of fun It was one of our first “normal” activities of the year

Extremely hot - about 93 F - which is typical this time of year

But with lots of breaks, some ice cream, and some shade, we made it through no problem

We’re on our 9th day after lockdown in Shanghai and mostly back to normal where we are

Today I went to the office, had client meetings, and came home to a pile of deliveries at our door

But I’m hearing more and more people in the city back under lockdown in several places Minhang district, with 2.5+ million people, is in lockdown again, likely through the weekend at least

https://twitter.com/shanghaidaily/status/1534717612919296002

Day 67 of our Shanghai Covid lockdown

Things generally continue to improve

It was a special day in our family and we got deliveries of flowers and Thai takeout - both barely passable compared with normal standards but we were delighted at the luxury compared with recent months! The Covid numbers in Shanghai continue to improve, but there is still frustrating occurrences of positive cases outside of the quarantine areas

For yesterday, there were four cases outside of quarantine - all from the same family that was initially identified from the grandma

https://twitter.com/shanghaidaily/status/1530369711900626945

Day 61 of our Shanghai Covid lockdown

For the first time in two months I stepped foot outside of our apartment gates today

It was great to get out, and I took advantage of the opportunity and great weather to take a long walk

It was mostly what I expected, with a few surprises The first surprise was how many people I saw!

I was out around three hours and saw several hundred people shopping, running, riding bikes, and doing normal things

It was very surreal, and also surreal how quickly it felt like a normal day

Day 60 of our Shanghai Covid lockdown

New cases in the city are generally trending downwards but are still frustratingly high after this amount of time

Yesterday, three new cases were identified outside of the quarantine areas, and several hundred inside the quarantine areas

https://twitter.com/shanghaidaily/status/1527464854495416322

We woke up this morning, as we almost always do, to a man downstairs in a hazmat suit yelling through a bull horn at us to come down and do a PCR test, if we can first show a negative rapid antigen test

We’ve lost count, but are well above 60 tests during this lockdown

Day 56 of our Shanghai Covid lockdown

When it’s nice out at night, I unwind on our balcony in a rocking chair my aunt gave me when our oldest was born

It’s a full moon tonight and so quiet that you can hear the footsteps and swishing of the hazmat suits 10+ stories below We don’t have an officially confirmed number, but we estimate that 70-80 people in our apartment community have tested positive and been taken to central quarantine over the past several weeks

Day 53 of our Shanghai Covid lockdown

Yesterday, they announced zero new cases outside of quarantine for the first time in a long time, which was huge news

But as quickly as we were optimistic, we were set back by two new cases identified outside of quarantine today In my apartment community, we’ve have an increase in mandatory testing, seemingly related to some “abnormal” recent tests in some of the buildings

So we are back to daily double testing

Day 47 of our Shanghai Covid lockdown and we woke up, like we often do, to a man in a hazmat suit downstairs yelling through a bull horn for us to come down for our tests

While checking our phones for the new test QR code, we also saw this alarming new official notice sent to us The key points are:

1) We must stay inside our apartment and not leave our front door, except for going downstairs for testing

This was not a change for us, and it was a little strange to see it reiterated again

Day 40 of my Shanghai Covid lockdown

We had seen a gradual decrease recently in new cases

But today cases went up again in Shanghai, another setback

By my count:
2% increase in new cases
10% increase in new fatalities

*There are several caveats to this link and the chart

https://twitter.com/shanghaidaily/status/1519857911526313984

Every day this week we have been called downstairs for a PCR test

Most neighbors have refused - we did too - and instead demand a home test

Some days, the neighborhood committee is insistent that everyone do the PCR test - usually to align with city wide testing requirements

Day 36 of our Shanghai Covid lockdown

Following a moment of inspiration, we started a broth/stock group in our apartment community People who have veggies which are nearing the time of being beyond the point you would normally use them, but which are still good, can give them instead of throwing them away

Day 35 of our Shanghai Covid lockdown

Unbelievably, the newly identified Covid cases in Shanghai increased yesterday

Adding to that trend, friends in several areas reported new cases in apartment buildings and communities that have been under strict lockdown for weeks

https://twitter.com/shanghaidaily/status/1517690777597784064

We have the strictest imaginable lockdown conditions in Shanghai, and still have this massive setback of a rise in new Covid cases.

How can the virus, in these conditions, continue to survive and spread?

And if it can, in these conditions, how can our hope continue to survive?

Day 29 of our Shanghai Lockdown

Food and water continue to be the hot topic for everyone in the city

Where we are, deliveries continue to improve, but at a frustratingly slow rate Yesterday, we received a delivery of salmon from an order we placed more than a week ago

It was not as much as we wanted, but we were absolutely thrilled to have it!

It was the first type of non-essential (ie, rice, potatoes, cucumbers) order we have received in a long time

Day 27 of our Shanghai Lockdown

From the official notice we received:

2 people in our apartment community tested positive

1 has recovered during their time in central quarantine, and has come back home for a monitoring period A few people in our apartment community were unhappy about a Covid patient coming back here, but most were supportive and the security guards let that person in

I’m sure he or she is very happy to be home

Day 24 of my Shanghai Covid lockdown

Today, the new policy went into effect that classifies each house/apartment community into three categories according to the risk level

We were classified as the highest risk level We are in the “locked down” tier, with the highest restrictions

The best case scenario is that we can’t leave our apartment door for the next week, then are allowed out of our door, but not our community, for another week

(Thanks to @ThatsShanghai for the translation)