Joanna Davison and her partner were relaxing in their flat in Shenzhen, China, when the phone rang. She was told by the Chinese authorities that they had been exposed to the coronavirus at close proximity and that officials were on their way.
“It was terrifying. Five people in hazmats turned up at our apartment, they looked like ghostbusters,” she said. “They took swabs from our nose and throat and said they’d return in the morning so we should start packing.”
In the end, they came sooner. Late on Sunday night, a team of masked officers who described themselves as police arrived at their door. They announced that the couple were being forcibly quarantined and warned that if they resisted, the police would use force.
It transpired that Joanna, 30, an international schoolteacher, and her partner, had been onboard the same ferry as a man who later tested positive for coronavirus, while traveling from Hong Kong to Shenzhen two days earlier.
The couple were told they would have to stay in state-organised isolation for two weeks from the date of the ferry journey, and are now counting down the days until they can leave on 13 March.
Joanna and her partner were told they couldn’t self-isolate because they had been in close contact with a confirmed case. They have read, however, in Chinese state media that other passengers on the ferry have been allowed to quarantine themselves at home.
“We don’t know how they determined that we were that close to the guy who was infected, it’s a mystery,” Jo said.
The couple were allowed 20 minutes to pack their belongings and feed their two cats before being put in the back of an ambulance and taken to a hotel across the road, which was being used by the Chinese authorities.
“Everyone around us was in hazmat suits and staying really far away,” she said. “When we got to the hotel, I saw that my partner and I had different room numbers allocated. I was in hysterics. Eventually they just agreed it was easier to let us stay together.”
Joanna contacted the British consulate but found them “disinterested” and “non-responsive”.
“I rang the crisis centre in London and the line cut off, and no one called me back. I was in tears, so it was concerning that they didn’t call me again,” she said.
Inside the hotel they found their bedroom to be dirty, with hair and broken glass strewn on the floor. They have been told they must remain a metre apart, despite being in the same room, and wear masks at all times.
The couple are woken at 7am each day to be tested for coronavirus symptoms, given masks, and even asked about their bowel movements. Later their temperatures are checked again. “The tests are painful,” she said. “The swab up your nose feels like it’s prodding your brain.”
What is Covid-19 - the illness that started in Wuhan?
It is caused by a member of the coronavirus family that has never been encountered before. Like other coronaviruses, it has come from animals. Many of those initially infected either worked or frequently shopped in the Huanan seafood wholesale market in the centre of the Chinese city.
Have there been other coronaviruses?
Severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) and Middle Eastern respiratory syndrome (Mers) are both caused by coronaviruses that came from animals. In 2002, Sars spread virtually unchecked to 37 countries, causing global panic, infecting more than 8,000 people and killing more than 750. Mers appears to be less easily passed from human to human, but has greater lethality, killing 35% of about 2,500 people who have been infected.
What are the symptoms caused by the new coronavirus?
The virus can cause pneumonia. Those who have fallen ill are reported to suffer coughs, fever and breathing difficulties. In severe cases there can be organ failure. As this is viral pneumonia, antibiotics are of no use. The antiviral drugs we have against flu will not work. Recovery depends on the strength of the immune system. Many of those who have died were already in poor health.
Should I go to the doctor if I have a cough?
UK Chief Medical Officers are advising anyone who has travelled to the UK from mainland China, Thailand, Japan, Republic of Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia or Macau in the last 14 days and who is experiencing a cough or fever or shortness of breath to stay indoors and call NHS 111, even if symptoms are mild.
Is the virus being transmitted from one person to another?
China’s national health commission has confirmed human-to-human transmission, and there have been such transmissions elsewhere.
How many people have been affected?
As of 6 March, the global death toll was 3,404, while more than 100,000 people have been infected in more than 80 countries, according to the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
Why is this worse than normal influenza, and how worried are the experts?
We don’t yet know how dangerous the new coronavirus is, and we won’t know until more data comes in. The mortality rate is around 2% at the centre of the outbreak, Hubei province, and less than that elsewhere. For comparison, seasonal flu typically has a mortality rate below 1% and is thought to cause about 400,000 deaths each year globally. Sars had a death rate of more than 10%.
Another key unknown is how contagious the coronavirus is. A crucial difference is that unlike flu, there is no vaccine for the new coronavirus, which means it is more difficult for vulnerable members of the population – elderly people or those with existing respiratory or immune problems – to protect themselves. Hand-washing and avoiding other people if you feel unwell are important. One sensible step is to get the flu vaccine, which will reduce the burden on health services if the outbreak turns into a wider epidemic.
Is the outbreak a pandemic?
A pandemic, in WHO terms, is “the worldwide spread of a disease”. Coronavirus cases have been confirmed outside China, but by no means in all 195 countries on the WHO’s list. It is also not spreading within those countries at the moment, except in a very few cases. By far the majority of cases are travellers who picked up the virus in China.
Should we panic?
No. The spread of the virus outside China is worrying but not an unexpected development. The WHO has declared the outbreak to be a public health emergency of international concern. The key issues are how transmissible this new coronavirus is between people, and what proportion become severely ill and end up in hospital. Often viruses that spread easily tend to have a milder impact. Generally, the coronavirus appears to be hitting older people hardest, with few cases in children.
Despite this, Joanna and her partner say they are grateful to be together as they face another nine days in the hotel. “I can’t even imagine what this experience would be like if we were separated,” Joanna said.
Britons “Frances”, 25, and her fiancé “James” (not their real names) haven’t been so lucky and have been isolated in different rooms. They were onboard the same ferry as Jo and were also deemed to have been in close proximity to the infected individual.
Frances and James were tested at their home on Sunday night but were not told they would have to leave.
“Later that night, at about 11pm, we got a call saying, we’re going now. There was an ambulance outside our place. We got in and a police car followed the ambulance with its sirens on. We didn’t know what was happening,” she said.
Despite the couple’s protests, they were put in hotel rooms two doors apart, after authorities insisted they could get infected more quickly, or from one another, if they were quarantined together.
Like Joanna, Frances found her room “filthy”. The hotel wouldn’t put the air conditioner on because of unstable electricity and she waited 12 hours for a fan and a towel to have a shower. Two days later, they brought soap and sanitiser.
Both couples say communication with the British authorities has improved in the last two days and they are now in regular contact with the British consulate in Beijing, which is liaising with the Chinese authorities.
Frances is struggling to cope without her partner and said it has been awful to be in quarantine alone. “I can’t believe we can’t be together,” she said.
“We’d be absolutely fine if we had to self-isolate. Why some people can and we can’t, boggles me,” Frances added.
