Life on Both Sides of the Curve

THE PANDEMIC STALKS A BICONTINENTAL FAMILY

- Selina Wang

In mid-January, a nurse named Hui Xian Wang heard that four people at a hospital near her own in Huanggang, a city of 7.5 million in Hubei province, had come down with viral pneumonia. The news didn’t seem too worry ing. China’s main state broadcaster, CCTV, had reported earlier that month that a novel coronavirus was responsible for similar illnesses in Wuhan, just 50 miles away, but for Hui Xian life was continuing as normal. She had plenty of other things to think about. Her job kept her busy, and she was looking forward to the Lunar New Year holiday, when she’d travel to Anhui province to see her in-laws. Her 8-month-old son was already there, his grandparents delighting in having him all to themselves.

A few days later, it began. Cases of the coronavirus were rising by the hundreds in Wuhan and other parts of Hubei. In Huanggang, patients were arriving faster than nurses could process them, many with severe, hacking coughs and high fevers. On Jan. 23, as the official total of confirmed cases reached more than 800, the Chinese government barred all travel in and out of Wuhan. The train station in Huanggang shut down, along with the bus system. By the end of the month, the whole province of 60 million was all but sealed off from the world.

In Beijing, where I work as a correspondent and anchor for Bloomberg Television, I received Hui Xian’s daily updates with increasing alarm. She’s my first cousin—I’ve known her almost my entire life. Since I moved to China from San Francisco last year, she and I have spoken every few weeks on WeChat, the all-purpose communication app everyone here uses, catching up on each other’s lives and laughing about the antics of her baby and 4-year-old daughter.