Originally posted by the Voice of America.
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A Month in Locked-Down Wuhan: A Father's Death, a Sleepless Volunteer and
Pressure

Xiao Yu

   WASHINGTON - On Jan. 23, Chinese authorities locked down Wuhan, the
   Chinese city of 11 million at the center of the global coronavirus
   outbreak.

   International health experts say [1]the move has been critical to
   slowing the spread of the virus to the rest of the world by two or
   three weeks.

   For many residents of Wuhan, the lockdown is a personal hell. VOA's
   Mandarin Service spoke to several people about their experiences in a
   once-bustling city that has been reduced to an almost-deserted
   landscape because most people cannot leave their homes.

   From strength to collapse

   One month ago, Yang Jingjing posted the government-promoted slogan
   "Wuhan Jiayou!" (Wuhan Be Strong!) on her WeChat, showing solidarity
   with her fellow countryman. WeChat is a superapp online messaging
   platform that anchors China's digital life.

   One month later, the 28-year-old real-estate saleswoman said her world
   had collapsed.

   On Feb. 21, Wuhan police notified her that her father's body had been
   found on a roadside. He had been dead for several days.

   Yang Yuanyun, 51, an employee of Wuhan Jiahua Automobile Plastic Parts
   Company, was the pillar of the Yang family.

   On February 16, his wife discovered he hadn't cooked for the day, as
   was the norm. Without his cellphone and wallet, he had left their home
   in Wuhan, leaving a last note to his wife on his cellphone:

   "I'm gone, won't be able to accompany you for the rest of your life.
   There is no way out."

   Yang never pushed the "send" button. Today, the message remains in his
   draft box.

   On the day he left, Yang also wrote some final words in a notebook:

   "If this epidemic is playing a joke on me, I can make peace with that.
   If my sick body can be put in any use, I will dedicate it to medical
   research. May this disease not torture the world anymore!"

   "He had been hiding it from me and my mom. He wouldn't talk to us about
   his physical condition," said his daughter Yang Jingjing, who had been
   quarantined in her apartment in Wuhan's Wuchung district after
   returning from her parents' home across town in the Hannan district. "I
   just want to find my dad."

   At the time, February 20, she had no idea that her father had died.

References

   1. https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/who-china-joint-mission-on-covid-19-final-report.pdf

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