All over the news is talk about a Sars virus we've never seen before. It's called "Coronavirus" or "Covid-19" and it's causing a contagious respiratory illness that is spreading throughout China and Europe.
We as a family have been glued to the news of Covid-19 since it was first announced as an issue in Wuhan, China in January just before Chinese New Year. Since we're preparing for our move to Beijing, we had a particular interest, and we were informed almost daily by the Beijing embassy as to how the virus in Wuhan was affecting Beijing. China shut down New Year's celebrations because of the virus, and normal travel to spend the holidays with family, was being prohibited. They were trying to contain the virus. Unfortunately, it has spread to Europe, so in the last week of January, we were informed that Mission China was authorizing departures to go back to the States for all U.S. embassy families with non-emergency personnel. Then only a day later, the authorized departure was upgraded to ordered departure of all families that had members under 21. So here at Falls Green, a number of families from China arrived, including two families from Beijing that we met at church on a Sunday after they quarantined for a few weeks. Thousands of people all over the world are trying to get back to their home country. People are fearing that airlines will shut down or flights won't be available to get home. I'm afraid the fun is just beginning. Not sure how this is going to develop here in the U.S. Covid is contagious, and with all the tourists and people traveling internationally for work, it will be hard to contain.
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