Migrants stay home to stay safe during holiday

New wave

In the beginning of the year, many new cases have been reported across China, with most being in the northeastern provinces of Jilin and Heilongjiang, and in Beijing.

The new wave came just ahead of the Lunar New Year, which, in normal times, sees the world's biggest annual migration. This year, such a mass movement would have posed a great challenge for control and prevention measures.

From mid-January, governments at all levels advised people to stay put for the holiday to help contain the potential spread of the virus during the event.

Meanwhile, each locality issued specific preventive measures to better manage people arriving from low, medium-and high-risk areas.

"The problem in Xingtai is already serious enough, so I decided I'd better not go back and add to the trouble," said Zhang, whose hometown was listed as a medium-risk place in early January.

By contrast, Zhang Binhong decided to stay in Beijing even though his hometown of Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi province, is a low-risk area.

"In fact, the extent of the new wave in Hebei has far exceeded expectations, with 90 or 100 new cases being reported daily. When I discovered that some people's travel histories covered Shanxi and Shaanxi, I began to feel that the journey home would not be safe and I might possibly catch the virus on the train," said the construction company employee in the capital.

However, he felt sad that he was not able to celebrate the festival with his family. "I still want to go home. I bought a present for my little niece at home, but now I have to mail it back," he said, speaking ahead of the festival.

Since moving to Beijing in 2018, Zhang Binhong has only returned to Xi'an twice－during the National Day holiday and the Spring Festival last year. Without the new wave of cases at the end of last year, he would definitely have traveled this year, too.

"Just being with my family, whether playing some sports, watching TV, chatting, cooking or doing housework, would have been good," he said.

It was the first time he had spent the festival outside of his hometown. "I had imagined not being able to go home for some reason, probably work or a business trip, but I never thought it would be related to the coronavirus," he said.