Michelle Zhang, a 33-year-old paralegal at the Law Offices of Eric K. Chen, poses for a portrait, Monday Feb 10, 2020. Although Zhang lives and works in Las Vegas, her family is back in Huangshi, Wuhan, and is heavily affected by the Coronavirus outbreak there.
Monday, Feb. 17, 2020 | 2 a.m.
Michelle Zhang has been on edge as the coronavirus sweeps through her hometown of Huangshi, China, several miles southeast of Wuhan, where the virus originated.
Her father and sister work in hospitals in Wuhan and Huangshi, and she worries they could contract the virus, which has killed more than 1,100 people and infected more than 45,000, including at least 500 medical workers.
“Right now, they only allow one household member at a time to go out to buy food, to minimize the amount of people that are out,” said Zhang, who lives in Las Vegas. “The hospital shortened their vacation time; some of their coworkers even had to work seven days a week.”
Earlier this month, the Nevada Chinese Association, along with the Law Offices of Erik K. Chen, where Zhang works as a paralegal, and Oasis Global Partners, an international private equity firm with headquarters in Las Vegas, organized an effort to deliver medical supplies to China.
They have been able to provide protective medical gowns and masks, although some suppliers are running low on stock, organizers of the effort said.
Elenis Wong, a receptionist at the Chen law firm, said it’s common for Chinese Americans to band together when there is a disaster abroad.
“Through colloquial networking and a grassroots effort within Chinese American communities, they’re able to hear from family and friends from the motherland to see what we can do,” Wong said.
Aloysius Lo, a partner with Oasis Global, said a staff member in Las Vegas “came in crying when she found out her actual family was right in the front line and is high risk. I felt I needed to do some digging to find out who else was affected.”
One issue that has come up, Lo said, is that many of these suppliers are running out of stock of the supplies they need to send over, resulting in quite a few back orders.
The demand for masks for example has spilled over to the rest of the word, resulting in them selling out in online sores in the U.S. and Europe, The Financial Times reported.
Wong said there have been reports elsewhere in the U.S. of people of Asian descent being harassed or discriminated against over fears they might have the virus.
“When any issue gets a racialized, the needs of the people suffering from the disaster gets lost,” she said. “That’s the most disappointing thing about it.”
Zhang said her family remains optimistic as Chinese officials work to contain the virus.
“We talk almost every day,” she said of her family members in China. “They have nothing to do since they have to stay at home, so I try to amuse them.”
