More than 100 quarantine facilities have been set up in Shanghai
Beibei sleeps beside thousands of strangers in rows of cots in a high-ceilinged exhibition centre. The lights stay on all night, and the 30-year-old real estate saleswoman has yet to find a hot shower.
“At the beginning people were frightened and panicked,” Beibei said. “But with the publication of daily figures, people have started to accept that this particular virus is not that horrible.” Anyone who tests positive but shows few or no symptoms is required to spend one week in a quarantine facility. Beibei said she had a stuffy nose and briefly lost part of her senses of taste and smell, but those symptoms passed in a few days.
At the convention centre, residents are checked twice a day for fever and told to record health information on mobile phones, according to Beibei. Most people pass the time by reading, square dancing, taking online classes or watching videos on mobile phones.