Lockdown Day 60: Signs we're near the end - last PCR test (organized by the community)

Today started pretty normal. I got a decent night’s sleep, and prepared a breakfast very reminiscent of quarantine hotel breakfasts! Last night I had made a pot of tea eggs in the Xiaomi, and after letting them sit in the braising liquid overnight, I took the eggs and liquid out, and then added in a bit of water and a glutinous rice shaomai from an earlier government delivery. This was my breakfast, with a bit of Tabasco sauce (also very reminiscent of quarantine hotel meals!) and tea.

At just before 11am, we were called down to do PCR tests.

Here’s the dabai “big white” 大白 guy scanning the vial of liquid. I think it was 5 swabs per vial this time.

For breakfast, I had kind of soupy rice, with the green beans and di san xian 地三鲜 leftovers from Saturday.

In the afternoon I did the antigen test as usual.

After work I prepped dinner ingredients, did an espresso workout (upper body), showered, and then cooked dinner. Tonight I made stir-fried noodles with baby bok choy, sausage, red onion, black wood ear 黑木耳, lily flower, enoki mushrooms, and shiitake mushrooms. Very colorful!

After dinner, I had my remaining seven lychee. Sad that they’re gone!

And then I did my midnight antigen test.

Today, there were finally concrete signs of opening up. The government said that as of June 1, we won’t have any restrictions to leave or enter our residential compounds. No more passes. Cars will also no longer need special permits to travel around, and even Didis and taxis can resume service.

Coinciding with the opening up, entryway lady told us that today’s PCR was our last one! Organized by the compound that is. After this we will need to go outside to do it ourselves. And we will need to do this. Tomorrow we need to show results from tests taken (not reported) within 48 hours, and as of June 1, within 72 hours. Which means, with the lag time between taking the test and getting the result reported, we’ll need to be doing tests every 60 hours!

So previously, I absolutely hated doing the PCR tests in the compound. Not only did they occur at random times in the day, making it so hard to do work and meet with others, but I thought they were unsanitary, having been touched twice in the face by the fingers of the testers.

Well now I will also miss them, because now I will need to go outside and find a place to do the test myself, and the booths outside look even less sanitary than the setups in the compound. Plus, I know the other people I line up with - those in my entryway - have been negative this whole time. but in the PCR testing points, there’s no control over who else you’re around when you take down your mask.

Entryway lady also said that we would need to continue doing two antigen tests a day.

People started to revolt against taking more tests. They compared with other communities … including the one we’re adjacent to. See, our community has two gates, one towards a main road, and one towards a smaller road. It’s just a 2 minute walk from one side to the next. Very small. But the side of the community closer to the small road gate has that gate’s address, while the side closer to big road gate has that gate’s address. And our building is right on the border between the two, but we fall in the group on the side of the big street. Well, turns out that the small street side hasn’t been doing PCR tests at least as frequently as we have been doing, and they do antigen tests only once a day. We’re actually always crossing paths, because I walk to that side of the compound to get deliveries, and we all share the same trash center.

So then poor entryway leader pleaded with us to continue to do as we’re told, “该干嘛还干嘛,” that small people like us and her don’t see the policies that are put out by the higher ups, and if we believe in the Party and government, and to support the country’s rapid control of disease, we should meet the obligations as citizens.

I’ve often been surprised by the discourse in WeChat groups. In my expat groups, we are very careful to never criticize any government policy (or talk about VPN, or certain regions of the world especially those close to China,…) as we are afraid of the consequences. But in Chinese groups, I find all sort of matters discussed.

For example, the other day someone commented that the recently a lot of bad people have been reporting offline sales happening in fruit shops, etc., which are not allowed during this time. Obviously he doesn’t believe that these businesses should be reported. And then another person replied, have the Red Guards of the Cultural Revolution returned? My goodness, saying something like this would be grounds for being ejected from my expat groups!

Not surprisingly, the two people in the below conversation were among those revolting against the antigen tests.