- Summer/spring (lower pollution — Chinese AQI around 60–100, with spikes to 150): 5-10% of people wear masks outdoors. The indoor rate is lower (2-3%?).
- December/early January (AQI typically above 120): 20-30% outdoors. The indoor rate is much lower.
- As of January 23/24: 80-90% outdoors. The indoor rate is at least as high. This time period includes a couple of anomalously low-pollution days (AQI 30 — the lowest I've ever seen in Shanghai), when I might otherwise expect mask usage to be even lower than that 20–30% from before the Wuhan events escalated.
This is just people walking around and shopping. As of a few days ago, some businesses, such as Starbucks and Didi (Chinese Uber/Lyft), require employees to wear respirators (and they've messaged to customers on WeChat and in the Chinese Starbucks and Didi apps).
We’ve decided to leave China before things get any worse. I’m not looking forward to bringing my family through the airport this week though...
People are taking it very seriously.
What would it look like if it wasn't fine...?
- An acquantince of mine went to a supermarket today. Everything seems fine (they live not too far from Beijing where there are confirmed cases).
- There are still people entering Wuhan to see family. (https://youtu.be/cmgPVhubmQA?t=208)
I'm not saying people don't care. My family is worried for me because I left Hanoi the same day an infected individual arrived in Hanoi. I have friends that are worried for their families back home. But I still see a lot of friends celebrating the new year, albeit not in any quarantined areas.
There's reports of people leaving the quarantined areas with symptoms. I wish they would team up with Tencent to flag individuals who have been active in the quarantined regions and left such regions since then.