Judging by the online reaction to today’s news, it was the moment many thousands of people in Nanjing had been waiting for. Back to school! Now it is only a matter of time for everyone else. One young man though, just couldn’t wait any more…
When the news broke this morning on WeChat, it took less than half an hour for one story with the news to be read by over 100,000 people. That’s how much Nanjing’s parents want their teenage children out of the house.
And it likely delighted same parents that they only had a few hours notice to get them from their pit. For the news was that senior students in Nanjing’s high schools were to return to their campuses as soon as this afternoon, reported PSA Jiangning.
But there are course some caveats. Exceptions to the return to campus are, naturally, high schools located in a medium or high-risk area. For the others, all staff at every school are required to show daily their health and travel codes, plus a NAT negative test result from the last 48 hours.
Then the schools are in addition to make available sufficient sanitiser, gloves, masks and non-contact thermometers. Food and water safety is also up there, whilst each school must have a response plan in place for use in an epidemic prevention and control emergency.
For the students, they and the family relatives with whom they live must also send to the school their health codes and NAT results. Furthermore, students, staff and teachers shall be subject to daily NATs.
The news comes as quite the surprise. In previous experience, schools would not return until after a lengthy 2-week period of zero new COVID cases. As well as getting them back to in-person learning as quickly as possible, the unexpected move is perhaps also an admission of sorts that this time around there is unlikely to be such a “zero period” for quite a while.
On to today’s distraction from the grind of COVID. And that comes in the form of one answer to the question: How do online gaming addicts cope when their favourite haunt is shuttered?
Answer: They steal a bike to ride to Anhui Province where the internet bars are still open.
In the early hours of 18 March, police at the Xingdian checkpoint on the Ninghe Expressway found a young man attempting to ride along the highway on a pushbike. This being naturally forbidden, police stopped the wide boy and took him in for questioning, reports The Paper.
Admitting that he was attempting to reach Anhui where he could satisfy his addiction, the bright spark later also confirmed that he had stolen the bike from outside Nanjing’s Yushan Lu Metro Station. But maybe he was not so daft, since his story checked out; as the last stop on Line 10, Yushan Lu is indeed the closest station to Anhui.
