I can’t forget the day I stayed out at the airport for almost 10 hours. It was all thanks to Corona. Because thorough testing and quarantine were necessary, it was a day when I had to wait for the test to come out, eating a hamburger provided on the airport floor instead of breakfast.
However, what was harsher than this was probably Hong Kong when the coronavirus was prevalent. Hong Kong showed a particularly sensitive response to infectious diseases transmitted through the respiratory tract in the aftermath of SARS. It also happened that the black wave movement suddenly calmed down.
The coronavirus outbreak broke out not long after I stopped going to Hong Kong, and the epidemic spread all over the world, suddenly stranding me and my colleagues in Hong Kong. Because the border was so tightly closed, it was a time when I couldn’t wait until 2021 to return to Korea, and I was anxious until the end about whether I would be unable to go home due to the word that the so-called ‘Chinese shutdown’ would be implemented, which would only allow grocery shopping during permitted times.
Experiencing the coronavirus in Hong Kong meant getting used to the daily routine of staying in a small room and not going out all day. I suffered a nervous breakdown from struggling with Korean files that were difficult to process on my MacBook at a small desk that could barely accommodate a laptop.
I don’t remember exactly what the step-by-step measures were, but from what I can remember, this is what corona was like in Hong Kong. An international exhibition gathering at least a few hundred thousand people was canceled the day before, movie theaters were closed frequently, masks were worn even while hiking, gatherings of more than four people were prohibited even indoors, and entry into the country was completely banned. It was a daily routine to watch the news every morning due to the frequently changing policies, and it was common for today’s schedule planned yesterday to be changed.
Colleagues with families in Macau and Shenzhen have not been able to see their families for over a year due to border closures. In Hong Kong, where all the streets were bustling, only empty streets remained, making it a leisurely place to visit tourist attractions.
The most memorable thing during that period was the three-week quarantine. The quarantine policy changed a day before I arrived in Hong Kong, and I was able to quickly book a hotel and return, but honestly, it felt like an experience. It was just starting to get chilly, so the room was cold and I could barely eat. After seeing a community video of a live cockroach running around in a lunch box, I couldn’t even touch the rice.
On a given day, several people would surround me and conduct coronavirus tests, and occasionally I would know that there were people around me by the sound of exercising or watching TV in the room above or next door. I was in this quarantine for two weeks. I spent two weeks in the dark, unable to even open the curtains for fear of hitting the wheel. Also, the policy changed a few days before the quarantine was released, so I had to move from the hotel to my home and extend my quarantine for a week. But home was just heaven.
If it was cold, all you had to do was turn on the heater and wear warm clothes. You could also wrap yourself in clean bedding. It was smaller than a hotel, but it was just good isolation.
As it happened, it took a long time and I left Hong Kong after suffering from coronavirus for about two years. Since it was a field that required communication, I kept making promises only for tomorrow, and in the end, I ended up leaving only documents that I had planned.
