eMalahleni resident back home after Coronovirus outbreak
Coronaviruses are common and spread through being in proximity to an infected person and inhaling droplets generated when they cough or sneeze, or touching a surface where these droplets land and then touching one’s face or nose
One of eMalahleni’s own residents, Josua Kruger recently returned from China after the outbreak of the Coronavirus.
He landed at the OR Tambo International Airport on Thursday, February 6 after spending nine months in China working as a teacher.
On January 7, the Chinese officials announced they had identified a new virus, according to the WHO (World Health Organization).
The virus was named 2019-nCoV and was identified as belonging to the coronavirus family, which the common cold is part of.
Coronaviruses are common and spread through being in proximity to an infected person and inhaling droplets generated when they cough or sneeze, or touching a surface where these droplets land and then touching one’s face or nose.
“I was in China since last year February,” explained Josua. He explains that even though he lived in China during the outbreak of the virus he didn’t really know about it until mid January.
“I didn’t really follow the news, so I was actually quite unaware of the outbreak of the virus.”
Josua lived in Chengdu which is approximately 1 163 kilometres away from Wuhan, the city where the virus broke out.
“When I first heard about the virus, I was not too worried as it sounded pretty much like the common cold, I didn’t know how serious it was. After doing some research I found that it spreads in the same way as the common cold and that a mask should be worn and hands should be washed regularly to avoid this.”
Josua explained that in the city where he lived only 124 people out of 15 million people were affected by the virus which is only 0.00082% of the residents of that city.
During the last month of Joshua’s time in China government officials tightened the reins in order to minimize the spreading of the virus.
“We were all urged to wear masks and to wash our hands regularly. Some people started to wear gloves as well. Later on the government requested everyone to try and stay in their homes and not leave unnecessary,” Josua said.
He also told that eventually health measures got to such an extent that at almost every single place where they went their temperatures were checked and monitored.
“Cities looked like they turned into ghost towns and the only open shops were major retailers, it also became extremely difficult to find masks for sale. So many people became paranoid and I can understand why.”
Josua explained that it was extremely difficult to leave the country as just before he was supposed to fly back via Singapore his flight was cancelled as Singapore no longer allowed anyone that was in China for longer than 14 days into the country.
“Luckily I was able to find a flight with Thai Airways but I heard that they also recently stopped flights,” he said.
Josua stated that he was very lucky to be able to come back home.
“I am so happy to be back home, I would just like to say that people don’t need to be scared of going to Chinese shops, those owners are all very aware of what is going on and they will make sure their shops are safe as they are just as paranoids as most other people,” he concluded.
Josua believes that the safety measures they had to take made it sound like this virus was not so serious but after doing more research and seeing the amount of people that past away, it may be more serious than realized.
The virus has claimed more than 1 000 lives already.
28 countries have so far confirmed cases of the coronavirus to date.
