An Old Guest Who Was Kept Out

By Yuxuan Li

(First Year Writing Award: Second Place, Style)

When the sun nearly went down, an elderly lady walked to the street. Old people like her were rare in the street. Because of the epidemic, the elderly and children were staying at home most of the time, as required by the community, except for going downstairs to do COVID-19 testing every day. But it was her seventieth birthday, and she just wanted to buy 7 yuan of yangchun noodles to have a little celebration. Her health was noticeably worse than it was a few years ago. Her steps were unsteady though with her stick.
There were few people on the streets. Most stores were closed, and the businesses were dismal. People were wearing masks. The old lady tremulously walked for a long time before she finally found a grocery with a light on. However, when she walked to the door, she was stopped by the shop assistant. “Show your health code please, lady”, said the young girl. During the pandemic, people could not go to the subway station, the market or the hospital unless they had a green health code.
But the elder madam only had one palm phone, and she also knew nothing about what was a health code. She stood there bewilderedly. She didn’t know why the noodles just right stayed here in the front of the shop, but she just couldn’t get it. A passer-by tried to come to her aid, and offered to buy her a noodles. However, when the shop assistant saw his health code, she denied his entrance and replied, “sorry sir, you cannot enter our shop, either.”
“Why?”
“You don’t have a 24-hour nucleic acid certificate.”
“I just finished the COVID-19 testing yesterday, though the result has not come out yet. Or you can see, there is also a 48-hour nucleic acid record that proves that I also did the testing the day before yesterday.” The man tried to persuade the clerk to let him in and buy the noodles.
But the girl said, “A 24-hour negative test is a policy requirement. If I let you in, I'll lose my job. You know, jobs are hard to find these days. Few shops are still open and some have even gone into liquidation.” The man finally left helplessly, leaving the old lady out of the shop. She looked at the noodles disappointingly for a long time. Nevertheless, she had nothing to do but left. She could not even have a bowl of Yangchun noodles to celebrate on her seventieth birthday. The sun eventually set, and such an awful day passed quickly.
And this, is the real example of the epidemic policy in China, beginning in November, 2019. People have to wear masks and if the outbreak took place in some areas, people there should do COVID-19 testing everyday. The areas with infected cases are sealed off to prevent the virus from spreading. There are also a lot of people like the madam and the passer-by. They are healthy people, but because they do not have a health code that meets the requirements to prove their health, they are shut out.
However, although such a policy is strict, it is undoubtedly effective. According to Worldometer, a website that provides live dynamic update statistics, by December 8, 2022, there are approximately 14 hundred million people in China, and the cumulative death toll of COVID-19 stands at 5, 235. While in Europe, at the same time, the cumulative death toll of COVID-19 stands at 1, 965, 720, with the total population about only 740 million. The sacrifice is terrible. A death is not just a number on report, but a disaster for a numerous family. By contrast, the significance of strict policies in China is clear.
When I was in China, the pandemic is sometimes very close, and sometimes very far away. It’s so close that I cannot see my friends for half a year even though we are in the same cities. We have to wear masks wherever we go. We have to do COVID-19 testing every week. It’s also so faraway that there has only been one outbreak in my hometown and lasted only for one month.
Strict policy gives us enough security, but we lost a lot at the same time. To many industries, workers cannot finish their work on time, because factories have been asked not to open during the pandemic. Many factories are closing and workers are losing their jobs. To many teachers and students, they lost their freedom. College is supposed to be one of the most free times in our life, but due to pandemic, we can only have online classes. Sometimes we could not even get out of the campus for almost the whole year.
Before the pandemic, there was a commercial snack street beside my neighborhood, and business there used to be booming. But after the pandemic, nearly an entire street of stores closed down. Even though people can receive treatment when they get sick, they still need financial resources to support themselves for the rest of their lives. For vendors, business and customer traffic are extremely important, but these are vulnerable to pandemic policies. A temporary lockdown is good for the large group, but it may not last forever.
Tourism is also a good example to explain what we lost due to the strict lockdown policy. My hometown is famous for Mount Huaguo, because it is considered as the birthplace of Monkey King. But in 2022, the city was closed for three months due to the pandemic.The economic loss can be easily imagined. This is inevitable. After all, the most effective way to isolate the virus is to isolate human contact. However, can such a strict policy last forever?
I do not think so. Especially now the virus is becoming less virulent with each generation. In my opinion, it is also time to relax the policy moderately to ensure people's quality of life. And the government is aware of this. The number of required quarantine period has now been reduced from fourteen to eight. But is it possible for China to end its containment policy? Will the government completely open up the movement of people without any requirement to wear masks or even quarantine? These questions are still worth exploring.
Maybe the policy could relax but not too much. Communities or streets affected by the epidemic should be properly sealed off and tested. However, the scope of lockdown and personnel inspection should be appropriately reduced, to avoid the burden on the flow of people and people's daily travel. In places where there is no epidemic, the frequency of nucleic acid testing for all staff should be reduced. In addition, strict screening of the nucleic acid status of people entering and leaving local areas may not only reduce the obstruction of people's ordinary life, but also reduce the risk of virus transmission.
Overly strict policies are not only bad for economic growth, but also bad for people's mental health. However, overly relaxed policies will encourage the spread of the viruses and threaten the safety of both people and society. Only appropriate policies can stabilize the situation and ensure the long-term and effective development of society. Undoubtedly, We need to further practice to find out how to find the appropriate way. After all, practice is the sole criteria for testing truth. After finding such a balanced way, the next time the elderly madam wants to celebrate her birthday, she may be able to eat a bowl of hot Yangchun noodles.

Citation
“Reported Cases and Deaths by Country or Territory.” Worldometers. info, 8 Dec. 2022.
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/