Editor’s note: Honolulu Star-Advertiser Multimedia and Engagement Editor Diane Lee shares the experience of discovering that her parents’ much-anticipated visit to their former homeland was ill-timed in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.
The Lunar New Year is only the biggest holiday for the Chinese. Most schools and businesses in China typically close to honor the annual tradition that involves popping fireworks, exchanging lucky red envelopes and feasting with ohana.
My Chinese parents booked their tickets to China late last year through a travel agent to celebrate the new year with plans to visit relatives in Hong Kong and Macao, and vacation in their former home of Zhongshan, a city in Guangdong province with over 3 million people.
After immigrating to Honolulu almost 40 years ago, several years had passed since my parents, who are naturalized U.S. citizens, returned to China to celebrate the new year. They wanted to treat themselves. Why not? It seemed like a good idea at the time.
>> RELATED: Coronavirus gets the attention, but the flu is the real problem
My parents picked the absolute worst time to travel to mainland China just at the start of the coronavirus outbreak. The coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, dampened their plans to celebrate the new year.
My parents didn’t get to celebrate. No festive fireworks. No big feast. No red envelope exchanges.
Most schools and businesses shut down — not for the new year — but to prevent the spread of the new virus.
Instead of shopping for souvenirs, chowing down on dim sum, visiting relatives and snapping photos at historic sites, they spent most of their vacation stuck indoors. It didn’t matter that they were far away from the epicenter of the epidemic — a nearly 12-hour drive from Wuhan, where the virus supposedly originated. It was safer to stay away from crowds.
Even my relatives in Macao and Hong Kong stayed indoors. They only traveled outside to buy necessities such as groceries and toilet paper. The situation has gotten so bad that armed robbers recently stole hundreds of toilet paper rolls in Hong Kong.
Of course, I did what a worried daughter oceans away would do: remained calm on the outside, but FREAKED OUT on the inside.
I called my mom on the free messaging app Viber to relay the latest information about the coronavirus: the number of infections, death toll and other details. News and information has been sparse in China, where the Chinese government controls the media and coronavirus coverage.
All across China, people donned medical face masks or N95 masks to prevent catching the potential viral infection. Pharmacies across the country quickly sold out of face masks as residents and tourists scrambled to stock up on supplies.
The outlook for buying face masks was so bleak that my Hong Kong relatives asked if I could send them face masks from Honolulu. No problemo, I thought. I soon realized it was a mission impossible.
I scanned the shelves at Longs, Safeway, Walgreens, City Mill and Lowes, but the face masks were all out of stock. I made my last stop at Home Depot only to discover the face masks were sold out, too. I stared at a shelf containing heavy-duty respirator masks, contemplating whether my relatives would wear such a thing.
“Are you looking for face masks?” a Home Depot employee asked. I was in luck. A new shipment of face masks had just arrived that night. I picked up two boxes of N95 masks, each box containing 10 pieces, for about $40. The irony: “Made in China” stamped on the boxes.
I shipped the masks out to Hong Kong on Feb. 3 just before the U.S. Postal Service announced that the suspension of flights resulted in difficulties dispatching mail to China, Hong Kong and Macao. As of our deadline, the package was still stuck in “transit” to the final destination after making a detour to Texas.
Earlier this month, China Eastern Airlines announced its decision to suspend all scheduled direct flights from China to Hawaii due to the coronavirus outbreak. My parents were lucky. Their return flight was out of Hong Kong via China Airlines, so they returned home safely. They passed a temperature check at the Daniel K. Inouye International Airport.
There are currently no coronavirus cases identified in Hawaii, according to a state Department of Health notice issued Friday.
On a recent Saturday, Hawaii business and community leaders held a press conference in Chinatown’s Kekaulike Market, urging the public to patronize Chinatown restaurants and shops struggling from diminished sales amid fears of the coronavirus. Chinatowns across the nation reported a slump in foot traffic in recent weeks.
It’s not surprising that even locals are scared. As of Saturday, the outbreak has infected more than 78,000 people globally and resulted in over 2,000 deaths mostly in central province of Hubei, according to the World Health Organization.
Some happy new year, huh?
More than two weeks have passed since my parents returned to Honolulu. The incubation period for the coronavirus ranges from 2 to 14 days.
I haven’t felt the need to wear a face mask, and I just hope that day never comes.
