TT nationals in Asia dealing with covid19

While the covid19 pandemic reached TT last month, some nationals in other parts of the world have gone through this phase already – and have come out on the other side.

Latest figures from the World Health Organization estimate there are now over 780,000 confirmed cases of covid19 globally and the death toll has exceeded 37,000.

In China – ground zero for the spread of the virus – life has slowly returned to normal after months of intense lockdowns. In other Asian countries, like South Korea, there has been a reduced rate of infection.

Newsday spoke to two TT nationals on the Asian continent to get a feel of what life is like as the world grapples with the covid19 pandemic.

Marianne Chang, Seoul National University, South Korea

Marianne Chang, 25, a bioengineering student, said public spaces in South Korea have not closed, although the country, which has over 51 million people, has had close to 8,000 cases to date.

There is no official lockdown by South Korean authorities, but efforts against covid19 include real-time text updates giving the time and location of confirmed cases. These updates urge people to avoid areas where there are cases, get tested in cases of exposure and practise social distancing.

Two free masks a week are distributed to citizens, but non-citizens, like Chang, do not have access because they don’t have national health insurance.

“People are going about business as usual, but the government is sending notices to maintain transparency of the situation.

“There’s definitely less people around. Seoul is usually a packed city, so I guess they succeeded in reducing the number of people that are going out.”

Chang said shopping and access to products have not been affected, given the country’s large online retail market, even for groceries.Subscriptions to these virtual services have increased.

While there are now online classes, Chang’s campus is not closed and facilities like the campus library are open, but with precautions, like temperature readings to check for fever.

“People are doing and adapting to online classes and assignments. There’s no lockdown (of the campus) and some people are still going to school, but taking precautions.”

Chang commends TT’s response to curb the spread of covid19, given the country’s testing and healthcare capabilities, which are limited compared to South Korea's.

Jayson Paul, education consultant in Beijing, China

Jayson Paul, 27, has worked in Beijing’s education sector for over two years. While a sense of normality is returning to China, Paul says daily life has slowed since the pandemic started in Wuhan.

Trains and buses are running again, but with fewer passengers. People have started physically returning to work, but practices like social distancing and health checks before entering spaces are still enforced.

Since mid-February, Paul’s employers have rostered staff to let them physically return to work, though they worked from home during the outbreak’s major stages, in late January.

“Work is slowly getting back to something approaching normal in Beijing.”

Describing the lockdowns to get China to this point he said, “It’s been challenging. I spent a lot of time in my apartment over the last two and a half months. But it allowed the country to move through this disaster.”

China’s situation is now vastly different from what it was in January.

“Everything you see going on everywhere else, like social distancing, remote working and people using masking and gloves, we have been doing that since the middle of January.”

To give a scale of how dire the situation became, Paul described trying to order masks and hand sanitisers by the third week of January. Before the outbreak such products would usually be delivered in two days. His order never arrived.

Paul said while TT’s and China’s response to covid19 can’t be compared, as the two countries are greatly different, the efforts by TT’s authorities show the situation is being taken seriously. He urged people to do the same.

“It (the measures) comes at a cost. People have lost their jobs and ability to socialise for nearly three months here,but we accepted that.

"The cost of not doing that is really high.”