Many not-so-early risers in Jiangning District today got their start to the week by the megaphone blaring up once again. Yep, we are back at it, but a few of us will be spared from queuing up three times in the coming days.
It came after a relatively relaxed weekend that saw people starting to venture out of their homes Saturday, as the report came in of only six new cases in the past 24 hours. Some took their children outside. The playgrounds, unused in over a week, felt a bottom or two on their slides. By the lake of an upscale compound, a miniature fishing net was cast by a girl of about 7 while her masked mother, her mind clearly somewhere else, looked on.
Outside on the street, literally everyone was masked up. Possibly even more than “you know when”. The only exceptions were the take out delivery riders, who with nothing to do, took their masks half off and whiled away the hours on their phones.
It was the first real sign of life in a while for Nanjing. But then yesterday came. And it was the bump in the numbers of new cases that brought to an end the steady decline and got Jiangning people jittery again.
The 14 new cases announced yesterday were responsible. By bedtime, the rumour mill had turned full circle and just about everyone knew what they were in for. More NATs. Certainly three, maybe even more.
The rumour was confirmed in the small hours of this morning, with PSA Nanjing (南京发布) releasing the details of the testing at 02:18. A few will be relieved; it is not the entire city that is subject to the second round of testing.
But not far off. The tests, which are to be completed by midnight tomorrow, apply to all of Jiangning, Lishui, Yuhuatai and Gulou districts. In addition, select subdistricts in every other part of Nanjing are also subject to the tests bar anywhere north of the Yangtze River. That’s correct; residents of Jiangbei New Area, Pukou District and Liuhe District are spared.
By the time office workers were at their desks this morning, the testing point had been prepared. Barricades to keep people even further apart than last time, doctors and nurses in full PPE and volunteers in place to help out.
But will it all be enough to slow the Delta variant’s spread in Nanjing? As those office workers prepare for their socially-distanced lunch, they received the news of 11 new cases in Nanjing yesterday, reported The Paper immediately after today’s pre-noon press conference.
For the answer, we need wait more. Possibly until long after the batteries on that megaphone have run dry.
