COVID-19 Diaries: San Francisco, USA, 184 Days In

Jane from China emigrated with her family to San Francisco many years ago and got a job in a factory near Chinatown. She shared her thoughts on what it’s been like living in the USA through COVID-19 and the George Floyd protests. 

Q: How was the lockdown in your city like? How did you feel about it?

A: We called it the state of emergency here. Anyway it was similar to a lockdown. Office staff were required to work at home. People were required to keep a social distance if they needed to go to the supermarket or work. However, it was not like the lockdown in Wuhan. I think Wuhan was more strict. I think [the state of emergency in San Francisco] is not strict enough. I heard of a robbery in my area in March.

While San Francisco is suffering from the pandemic, it is also suffering from violent unrest due to the George Floyd protests. Can you tell us what is happening in San Francisco now?

Just like what you can see via the internet, people have gone to rob markets and factories everywhere. I think it is very dangerous now. Especially in the Chinatown area. Starting from Sunday, a curfew was introduced to try to stop the unrest.

Why are people robbing markets and factories?

The factory I work in was robbed. Colleagues say the robbers would sell the goods they robbed. I don’t know why they robbed the market, maybe because they thought it was easy to do so? By the way, people hoarded food and stuff before the state of emergency as well. The difference is now they don’t pay for it.

Aren’t people afraid of catching COVID-19 if so many people gather?

They’re not. If they are not afraid of guns, why would they be afraid of COVID-19? Some of them said COVID-19 is just like the flu.

Will you consider going back to China?

Let me show you this picture [picture below]. Whenever there is a robbery or violent unrest, a yellow spot will appear on the map. There are several yellow spots near me now. Yes, I am quite scared now. But even if I want to go back to China, I can’t. There are no flights now and I have my family here. 

Jane hopes that life will be able to return to normal next year and that she will be able to go to work as usual and continue to stay with family. 

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Photographs courtesy and copyright of Jane. Interviewer: Kauai
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