Family came face to face with the virus and won

As the novel coronavirus began to spread in New York in midMarch, like many others I began working from home, a three-bedroom apartment I share with my wife, two children and in-laws. Having fed ourselves on news about China’s hard-won war with the virus, we were determined to keep the invisible enemy at bay.

So I fortified my home with plenty of medical alcohol, handsanitizing liquid and masks, including some N95s. I also began to order everything, including food and baby diapers, from the internet. We wanted to be so wellprepared that we would be the last to be knocked down by the virus.

But on April 11, about 20 days after Governor Andrew Cuomo announced “New York on Pause” from March 22, the virus somehow had broken into our house.

My mother-in-law, who never stepped out of the door of our apartment once we started to shelter in place, was the first victim, showing all symptoms of the novel coronavirus — coughing, fever, fatigue, chills and loss of taste — then my father-in-law, and then me.

I suspect the food packages we ordered online as the source, because we had almost zero contact with anybody else over the previous three weeks. At the same time, Forest Hills, Queens, where we live, together with a group of adjoining neighborhoods, has emerged as the epicenter of New York’s epidemic, in a state in which the coronavirus has taken more than 26,000 lives.

Mindful of the fact that seniors are much more vulnerable to the virus, my wife — who had to leave our apartment and seek shelter with two children in an apartment some colleagues vacated weeks ago when they left for China — embarked on a frenetic search for what can and should be done for her parents, both in their 70s.

The first thing we did was visit Elmhurst Hospital for a coronavirus test. Before we went I called the New York coronavirus hotline on April 16 but was told a test could be done only for those with severe symptoms such as difficulty breathing and who had been admitted to the hospital.

Fearing it would be too late for the folks to wait that long, we went to the outdoor make-shift tent for testing at Elmhurst Hospital, where we found four medical staff members and one woman waiting to be tested. I tried to describe the symptoms, but was interrupted by a medical staffer who asked: “You want a test or not?”

The test was extremely fast, about 10 minutes, including all paper work, but it took six days to get a result.

My mother-in-law’s condition was rapidly deteriorating. Unable to wait for the outcome of the test, I took my in-laws to a nearby urgent care center, where a Chinese American doctor told us it must be coronavirus, so there was no need to wait for the result.

At the urgent-care center, a scan performed on my mother-in-law clearly showed a lung damaged by coronavirus. Medicines were prescribed, and that was three days before we were given the test results, which, to no one’s surprise, came back positive.

There were anxious days ahead: We found ourselves on the verge of desperation when my mother-inlaw’s arterial oxygen level turned precariously low.

Thanks to my colleagues, friends and those within the Chinese news media and diplomatic service in New York, who helped with every imaginable thing, we were able to keep calm even in the event of the worst-case scenario.

Luckily for us, that scenario never materialized. Now the dark memories are receding, although not as quickly as we would have liked.

Worries over reopening

As we recovered from the illness, my worries were unassuaged. During a recent 40minute walk from my home to a pharmacy, I did a simple survey with my own eyes: 43 people walking on the street, alone or with others, were not wearing masks.

Starting this month, more and more people are going back to work. Is the US ready for reopening, with a daily death toll of about 2,000 and so many refusing to don a mask in public spaces?

What have I gained from my family’s coronavirus ordeal? An abundance of love and warmth from my colleagues, the caring from the doctors we have visited or called, especially my family doctor, Dr Zhang. And perhaps it made a better cook of me after taking care of my in-laws for weeks.

What have I lost? I haven’t seen my children for nearly a month, but thankfully, they and my wife are fine. I have just had another test and hopefully when the result comes back shortly we will see each other again. As for losing 5 kilos, I don’t miss that one bit.