How to Carry on with Life during the Corona Virus Outbreak?
Sylviana
Since people knew Corona Virus from TV news/ the Internet/ newspaper, almost everyone wears a mask when going out to take public transportation, work, or restaurants. I didn’t consider it to be serious until I received an email from my school, telling students that to avoid the risk of Coronavirus spreading, all primary and secondary schools in Taiwan would extend their winter break to the end of February. As a new semester started, students are told to keep the social distance for about 1.5 meters, especially when lining up at the student cafeterias, wear masks, and not to talk in the elevators.
I’m suffering few things from it: there was a licensing examination I supposed to take in March but it has been postponed to May, I couldn’t travel abroad this year, and our teacher planned to take us out to a field trip and teach us how to introduce some well-known attractions in Hsinchu but we had no choice but to cancel, as a result, we were asked to do PowerPoint presentations instead.
People who return from abroad or travel to other countries would be in quarantine for 14 days; some public spaces, such as schools, shopping malls, and restaurants, are with alcohol sprays and liquid soaps for cleaning hands; some places like squares for performance are even closed. In my hometown, Miaoli County, there are lots of people waiting outside the National Health Insurance (NHI) appointed pharmacies to buy masks and alcohol sprays because the 2 products are with quantity measurement. Taiwanese Government tweaks mask rationing plan to include all foreign nationals, I’m fortunate that my family has the habit to stockpile some masks, alcohol sprays, and foods at home, thus, there’s no need for us to line up for buying anything, we can avoid the crowds.