"Due to the outbreak of a new type of Legionella pneumonia in our city recently, the city will implement martial law at 19:00 on August 3rd. Please return home as soon as possible, don't panic, and wait patiently for the evacuation arrangement..."
On the TV screen, the male host looked very serious, and his voice was solemn and generous, full of confidence to overcome difficulties.
In Shanhai City, no matter which TV channel is turned on, the signal is this breaking news report.
The network has been controlled, but mobile phones across the city are receiving such SMS notifications, and there will be new ones every so often.
Notifications began at 2:00 pm, and martial law would be enforced by 7:00 pm. The time was rushed, which made people both surprised and scared.
Some people immediately wanted to leave Shanhai City by car, no matter if they were coming from other places, or they were bringing their families with them, but without exception, they found that all the entrances and exits had been controlled, and the whole city was sealed off.
Some people wanted to go to the supermarket to buy supplies, but found that all supermarkets and large shopping malls were blocked and could not enter.
In the news report, the host actually made it very clear.
Legionella is airborne, produced in the natural environment, and breeds in artificial water supply systems such as air-conditioning refrigeration units and hot and cold water systems. These systems excrete contaminated aerosols, which can cause infection when inhaled into the human body, with symptoms such as fever, sweating, difficulty breathing, and coughing.
Therefore, places like supermarkets and gymnasiums are the places where the transmission is the most serious.
All air conditioners in the city should be shut down immediately, and showers, humidifiers, etc. should also be shut down. Furthermore, all artificial water supply systems must be shut down. The city's water supply will be cut off at midnight on the 4th. People are requested to store water well, but it is best not to drink it. If you want to drink it, you have to leave it for ten hours. If you have water, don't approach the tap. Please persist until you evacuate. Don't panic.
The prevention and control personnel will first take away the infected and suspected infected people in the city one by one area by area for isolation, and then evacuate other people.
"Please stay at home patiently." The host repeatedly emphasized, "Don't panic."
This press release is obviously carefully considered, to let the public understand the seriousness of the situation but not to panic. It doesn't even say "an outbreak" but an "emergence" of an epidemic.
People who study medicine can hear more strange things. In the past, Legionella was not so contagious. What does "new type of Legionella" really mean
Not everyone knows about Legionella, but every citizen can feel the severity of these emergency measures.
Li Mingqiu has graduated from university for six years, nearly thirty years old, and is a programmer for an IT company.
As soon as the city-wide notice came out in the afternoon, people in the company panicked. Everyone wanted to leave immediately, but the leader said that the guidance document told them to stay in the company as much as possible to wait for the evacuation, and it was those walking on the street who wanted to return home as soon as possible.
"Those who have children to take care of can go first. Others think about it for themselves. The traffic outside is chaotic and there are so many people. It is easier to get infected if you go out and run around."
This is true. Looking out from the window of the middle floor of this office building, pedestrians are in a hurry on the street, taxis have stopped at all, and the traffic is on the verge of paralysis.
Because Li Mingqiu was not a local, nor married nor had children, he shared an apartment with others, and there was no benefit in going back, so he chose to stay in the company.
Half of the colleagues stayed, not all because of their families, but also because they wanted to buy supplies: "I don't know how long it will take to evacuate, this germ can pollute the water, and the mineral water will be robbed if I go late. Some people think it's no big deal at all: "It's just scaring people, routine."
The central air conditioner was immediately turned off. In the hot summer of August, the office was extremely hot, and the windows had to be closed according to the instructions.
"This epidemic may be worse than SARS..."
"Yeah, the country must have known it was a hasty thing to do, but it did it anyway."
The office was stuffy and hot, and the remaining ten or so people stayed in their seats. After the initial excited discussion, they were now talking in a daze.
At this time, Wei Xiaoru, who was talking on the phone with a doctor classmate, put down the phone and said to the nervous people: "My classmate said that there are many kinds of Legionella, and this time it should be a new kind of bacteria, which is different from the previous ones." There is a difference. Preventing Legionella requires opening windows to maintain ventilation, which does not provide them with an ideal growth environment."
"Then we still close the window?" Zhang Dawei asked in surprise, this was also the doubt of Li Mingqiu and others.
Wei Xiaoru recalled: "The main carrier of Legionella bacteria is the aerosols mentioned in the news, but generally they can only spread to a space with a radius of 200 meters with the wind and survive in tap water for more than an hour. Now we have to close the windows, If the water supply needs to be cut off again, my classmate said that there are only three possibilities.”
"One is that this new type of Legionella has more diverse carriers, a wider range of transmission, and a longer survival time in water; the other is that the disease control side believes that Shanhai City has... been polluted everywhere. And, the former Both could be true."
Everyone looked at each other in blank dismay. Although they didn't know much about medicine, they all understood how serious it was.
Spread with the wind? Spread with tap water? People have to breathe and drink.
"Is the whole city polluted?" Zhang Dawei was full of anger, "What's the matter? Did you f*ck hide the report, and you have to evacuate after this happened?"
"My classmate said..." Wei Xiaoru was also at a loss, "This epidemic may develop so fast that even the country is caught off guard."
Everyone was worried and anxious, but they could only wait. At seven o'clock in the evening, sirens sounded in the sky of the whole city, and martial law began.
They looked out from the window of the office, and the street had become deserted, only the disease control vehicles and martial law vehicles that had appeared since the afternoon passed by from time to time on the road, and a team of disease control personnel in white protective suits passed by. Catch individual people who are still wandering outside in transport vehicles and take them away.
But it has long been said in the news that contact with disease control personnel has a greater risk of infection, so don't go out on purpose and get arrested.
And being taken away is not to leave Shanhai City, but to be taken for examination, and if infection is suspected, it will be quarantined and treated.
After the siren sounded, a broadcast sounded over the city again: "Please return home as soon as possible..."
The news also said that if you find someone around you showing suspected symptoms such as continuous coughing, please stay away from the suspected patient immediately and call the helpline. If you develop symptoms, please call the hotline immediately so that you can get treatment as soon as possible.
Why should we evacuate patients first and then others
Li Mingqiu thought about this problem all afternoon, and the more he thought about it, the more he felt that apart from the lack of manpower, the entire Shanhai City should be polluted...
There is an incubation period for this disease. Whoever carries the germs and who doesn’t, can’t be seen. One patient can expand the scope of contamination and infect tens of thousands of other people.
So we can't evacuate casually, we need to take time to let the patients show themselves first, so as to determine where Shanhai City is still clean.
Maybe only the healthy people in the clean area will be evacuated in the end...
Everyone was silent, suddenly at this moment, a colleague who was sitting in his office chair, Lin Mingda, who was not talking much, coughed suddenly: "Cough, cough..."
All of a sudden, they all turned around and saw that Lin Mingda's complexion had become a little ugly for some time.
When it was over, Li Mingqiu's heart tightened, his whole body seemed to collapse, and Wei Xiaoru beside him also turned pale.
"Ah!" Zhang Dawei took a few steps back and said in panic, "Call someone, call quickly..."
"I, I..." Lin Mingda wanted to say something, but he coughed more violently: "I, cough cough..."