Chongqing- iChongqing has conducted a webinar on April 3, 2020, with Chinese students and residents aboard to discuss their current situation and concerns during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this video, iChongqing's reporter Sasha and Zhen Wei invited four friends in the U.S. to talk about their thoughts and response to the COVID-19 pandemic, whereas the states have over 500,000 confirmed cases as of April 11, 2020. They are Regina Wang from Barry University in Florida, Hailin live and work in New York City, Cecilia Liu from Dallas, Texas, and Defoe Zhang, who work and live in New York City.
All of them are in the quarantine now, according to their observation. Currently, New York City is in an intense situation due to its 90,000 confirmed cases, the confirmed cases number overpass the whole country of China, and there is a shortage of masks. Though there is no lockdown of the city, most people work from home now as the initiative. The pandemic situation in Texas is not as much as NYC. There are about 20% beds available in Cecilia's community, and there are free COVID-19 drive-in test spots in Dallas. According to Regina, the online classes continued in their master's degree, only international students stay on campus. She has self-quarantined for one month, and she does not have any idea of what's going on outside the campus.
When talking about fly back to China, all of them decided to stay in the U.S., and the reasons include a high risk for the first place. Secondly, the ticket is too expensive, or third, people have reservations about flights, or fourth, they were all canceled and postponed to an unknown date. Defoe Zhang said that even though he is now in NYC, the state has the most infected cases, he will not choose to go back to China. "If I bought a ticket to go back, it will be a high risk on the route. I think to stay where you are the best choice," he said.