Former Galveston teachers locked down in Shanghai

Former Galveston teachers locked down in Shanghai



Shawna Hampton-Riddle, formerly of Galveston, is experiencing the global COVID-19 pandemic in Shanghai, China, where she lives with husband, Brady, and two teenage children. The government’s iron-fisted and efficient response has been both disarming and reassuring to Hampton-Riddle, who at first thought it was overkill.To get more Shanghai breaking news, you can visit shine news official website.

“I was kind of shaking my head and thinking this is stupid, but I followed the rules,” she said. “I had to because I’m a guest in this country. Now I realize this is what needed to happen, and it worked.”

Shanghai, a city of 25 million people, is beginning to reopen after nearly two months of complete lockdown.Shawna and Brady started their teaching careers at Ball High School in the late 1990s, and their two children were born at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston.

But teaching abroad captured their imaginations and for six years they taught in Oman in the Middle East, repatriated for a brief period of time, then ventured to Shanghai, where they teach high school at Shanghai American University.

“The borders are closing tonight,” Hampton-Riddle said Friday via FaceTime. The border closing was the government’s response to a rise in the number of COVID-19 cases from 19 to 150, a second wave of the virus.In the first wave, China had more than 80,000 cases. On Thursday, the number of cases in the United States rose above that to 82,404.

“The new cases were all caught at the airport,” Hampton-Riddle said. All visitors from high-risk countries such as Italy, Spain and the United States are tested and quarantined until their test results come back negative.

“Universities in Europe are now closing and one of my son’s friends, coming back from picking him up, the whole family is quarantined,” Hampton-Riddle said.In China, that means a sensor is placed on their apartment door that alerts authorities when it has been opened and closed, and an official comes by every day to take temperatures, then uploads the information onto an app.

The family traveled to the Philippines in January for the Chinese New Year holiday and returned to Shanghai on Jan. 31, just in time for the lockdown when everything about daily life changed.

“Everything here can be delivered, usually to our door, but since all of this happened, only one entrance remains open to every apartment complex and no one is allowed to come in if they’re not a resident,” Hampton-Riddle said. “They drop off the delivery to the main gate and we have to go pick it up.”

The majority of COVID-19 cases in China occurred in Wuhan, a city of 11 million and the first to lock down, but all cities rapidly were put on strict lockdown orders. Restaurants and all gathering places were closed, students and teachers moved to distance learning at home, and the government exercised strict control over all movement throughout the city.

Everyone was required to wear government-provided masks if they ventured outside. Government workers called each home, asked how many lived there, then told residents where to go in their neighborhoods to pick up a supply of masks. The following week, a new supply was ready at the same location, Hampton-Riddle said.

The exponential growth of the virus in Wuhan didn’t pass on to other Chinese cities because of the strict lockdown, and Hampton-Riddle fears, based on what she’s read and heard, that the United States will have “many Wuhans across the country.”

Theaters, cinemas, museums and malls are still closed in Shanghai, but restaurants are open and people can enjoy the outdoors. It’s spring and flowers are blooming, Hampton-Riddle said.

“In China, if you’re not practicing social distancing when the government tells you to, they’re going to bolt your door shut,” she said. “They’ll bring you the supplies you need. That’s just how it is. You can’t be a rebel and say, ‘I don’t want to.’”