Inside the coronavirus outbreak: Former Clevelander gives account of daily life in Shanghai

Womack

Katheryn Womack is a former Clevelander living in Shanghai, China, with her two daughters Rumi, 13, and Raine, 11. Womack described the restrictions that they are living under as the Chinese government responds to the COVID-19 outbreak. Womack spoke to the Plain Dealer via Skype on Feb. 12, 2020.

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Katheryn Womack puts on a mask and gloves, then ventures out into Shanghai, China, a city that has been transformed by the novel coronavirus outbreak.

Buses that used to be packed now carry only a few riders. At Starbucks, customers are asked to wait outside for a barista to bring out their order. Stores check customers’ temperatures before allowing them inside.

Elevators smell like bleach. Malls are empty.

“People are bored and annoyed,” said Womack, 50, a former Clevelander, during a Skype call this week. “This is still going on. Where’s the end?”

Womack and her daughters — Rumi, 13, and Raine, 11 — are fortunate. They haven’t felt sick, and they don’t know anyone who has tested positive for COVID-19.

The English literature teacher has lived in Shanghai with her two daughters for seven years. The family is now in what the Chinese government calls “self-quarantine” as it responds to the coronavirus, called COVID-19, outbreak.

Shanghai and Beijing were put on partial lock-down this week in efforts to contain the virus. This included stricter control of people and vehicle movements, compulsory mask-wearing and the closing of leisure and non-essential community services, according to published reports.

COVID-19 has killed more than 1,100 people in China and has spread to other countries, including the United States. The number of confirmed cases in China has reached more than 44,600. The World Health Organization declared a global health emergency as a result.

In Shanghai city, there had been 306 confirmed cases, 177 suspected cases and one death according to a World Health Organization report Thursday morning.

While Womack and Rumi aren’t concerned, Raine admits she is worried about her friends. “If one person gets sick, they all get sick,” Raine said. Both girls are home schooled.

When the outbreak first happened, the human relations department at the school where Womack teaches urged employees to wash hands frequently, wear masks and gloves, and notify the government immediately if they developed a fever.

The U.S. Consulate urged all Americans to leave China. Womack chose not to leave, in part because she worried that her family would be quarantined when they arrived in another country.

“The idea of being enclosed on a plane — and you don’t know other people’s (health) status — for 19 hours, I don’t want to risk that,” Womack said. She also heard that flights out of China cost $1,000 per person, which she couldn’t afford.

So she decided to stay put and wait. And from what she’s seen, life won’t be back to normal anytime soon.

On Tuesday, two of the three gates leading into her residential community were closed. Guards issued tickets to residents as they exited the one open gate. Residents must produce the ticket to get back inside, Womack said.

Outsiders aren’t allowed inside the residential community, which means she can’t get a computer repairperson to fix her modem. She completed a Skype call by using a cellphone’s wifi hot spot.

womack girls

Raine Womack, left, 11, and her sister Rumi, 13, appear on a laptop screen during a Skype call with the Plain Dealer on Feb. 12, 2020. have had their lives disrupted by the Chinese government’s stricter controls on the movements of people and vehicles in an attempt to stop the COVID-19 outbreak. Raine and Rumi live in Shanghai with their mother, former Clevelander Katheryn Womack.

Womack and her daughters spent the first few days of the health crisis indoors, but now they take daily walks to get fresh air and see how the city is coping. They miss afternoons spent hanging out at Starbucks.

Rumi normally would have celebrated her recent birthday with a fun outing, but not this year.

“It’s been kinda boring,” Rumi said about the quarantine measures. “I’m not that worried. People are overreacting. I go outside and everyone’s just walking and doing normal things. The only difference is that they are wearing a mask.”

The 7,000-student international school where Womack teaches English literature is closed until Feb. 17 for the Lunar New Year, but no one expects the school to open then, she said. Teachers have been told to prepare two weeks’ worth of online lessons to be assigned and graded electronically. The school also has done wellness checks on employees.

She normally buys food from an online grocery store that delivers. Orders that used to arrive in just a few hours now take days to arrive. “They’re down to just a couple of (delivery) people, and (the store) only has half of what they normally have,” Womack said.

When Womack, a former instructor at Case Western Reserve University, ran out of her prescription medication, she was afraid to go to her neighborhood hospital to get refills, as she normally would. A Chinese friend purchased the drugs online and had them shipped to Womack.

To pass the time, she and her daughters have been cleaning their apartment, reading, playing with their two cats and two dogs, and watching movies. “Harriet” and “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” earned thumbs up.

Womack also posts updates on the situation in Shanghai on her blog, Smiling in Shanghai. She blogs under the name Ryn Cricket.

When COVID-19 first struck, Womack wrote on her blog: “Every piece of laundry is done. Not a dirty dish in the house. Working on homeschooling, crafts, binge watching TV shows, and just really bored. If you recall, my bed burned a couple of weeks ago (electric blanket overheated/caught fire), so I’ve been sleeping on the couch, because there are no deliveries. Sometimes, it feels like China is trying to kill me.”

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