Since today would be day 84 since the quarantine began, my wife and I discussed, are we still in quarantine?

I’m honestly not sure if we are or if we are living in a quasi-quarantine scenario. So I will let you know what I Do know and can see. Maybe after reviewing it all I can figure out if this is the new normal or still quarantine.

Masks

Before Covid 19, about 60-75% of Beijing’s population wore masks due to smog. Daily it was common to see medical masks, or pm 6.5 filter masks. 2 months ago the number was 100%. Now the number of people wearing masks in Beijing is about 95%.

Restaurants

Almost all restaurants are still delivery only service. Now in Beijing all restaurants had delivery through various phone apps before hand. These apps have, I’m sure been the saviour of many small locally run restaurants. For 2 months it was illegal for them to have on site customers. However today I saw the local MacDonald had 5 seats open for inside eating.

Schools

Schools are closed. Have been since the beginning of the semester and will not open this semester at all. The first 8 weeks of the term we were told as teachers to give review. Some of us began to record video lessons for kids to watch at home during their free time. Now we have zoom lessons until July 10th.

Parks and Public Spaces

At the beginning of the whole panic, all parks and public spaces pretty much closed. A small amount of people would still go but for the most part, everyone stayed home. Now, while still not recommended, I see families outside playing in the apartment gardens. Some have masks, some do not.

Malls remain vacant, and to enter supermarkets, malls, stores, even the wet market, you have to be hearded through a line with a thermal camera. Some places require you to sign in or register with your WeChat.

In February, when you went outside to get groceries, the city was practically a ghost town. Now the streets are back to almost regular capacity. Every one being told to stay 1 meter away from anyone else.

Some stores still won’t let people in. You just stand at the desk blocking the entrance. Employees will get things for you and bring it to you to pay for. Most pharmacies and printing services are this way.

Apartments

At the beginning of February, all apartment compounds in Beijing began enforcement of an entry pass. You could only come in to the compound if you had a pass, and needed one for each person in your family that would enter. This has now been upgraded. I received word that next month we would have to trade our laminated pieces of paper for picture ID needed to enter the compound.

Also new: I needed police permission to move into our new apartment, and I have a feeling that if we had gone on vacation and returned to the city in February or March we would not have been granted permission. We still need to go register at the closest branch of the police. (Moving permission came from the apartment community police box)

So as I mentioned before, we are still quarantined in we can’t go DO anything, but yet there are people in the streets. I will count this as quarantined until the kids can go play in a playground…