'Editing' in the time of coronavirus

Editor's note: In this new column starting today, we'd like to share stories and experiences of expats on how they are dealing with the novel coronavirus pneumonia outbreak.

In home quarantine now, having arrived in India just before Spring Festival and subject to the 28-day mandatory period, my job as a China Daily editor continues－albeit in ways I never envisaged before.

I have become a fact checker for messages asking my opinion most of them fake news, and some so gruesome that they should have come with warnings.

However, other messages include glowing tributes to the doctors, nurses and other medical staff at the front line in what has been described as a "war".

Ever since late January, Indians have watched in anguish and awe as China pulled out all stops to battle the deadly novel coronavirus pneumonia raging in Central China.

Anguish was about the fate of hundreds of students and corporate staff in Wuhan, Hubei province, as depressing news about NCP spread.

This was soon relieved as two Indian planes evacuated more than 600 people from the epicenter of the outbreak.

Indian officials, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, have been effusive in their praise for Chinese officials who helped facilitate the evacuation.

Modi expressed solidarity with President Xi Jinping and the people of China over the outbreak of NCP, and offered condolences at the loss of lives, Indian media reported on Sunday.

Awe was in the form of photographs being widely circulated of the two hospitals built in a matter of days in Wuhan. Many Indians, so used to hearing about "China speed "and admiring and envious of the country's infrastructure, could only mutter, "Only in China".

There is also great sympathy for people forced to stay home as videos of empty streets and public transport facilities do the rounds.

Along with commiseration, there was consternation and confusion, too, among Indian businesses with extensive links to China.

One friend, who visits Guangdong almost every month, recently started a home-automation business with equipment sourced from the province. He is not sure when his next shipment will come.

Another, who imports hundreds of thousands of TV set-top boxes, also from Guangdong, is worried about the supply chain.

More critically, supplies of drug ingredients for Indian pharmaceutical manufacturers, mostly antibiotics and vitamin makers, are likely to be disrupted, Indian media reported.

Indian drug manufacturers are to a large extent dependent on China for sourcing their drug ingredients, or active pharmaceutical ingredients, mainly for antibiotics and vitamins. They are based on drug ingredients made using the fermentation-based process, an area where China has global dominance.

Amidst all this, was the uplifting story widely reported in Indian media of a wedding between Wang Jihao from Beijing and Satyarth Mishra in the central Indian town of Mandsaur, 4,500 km from her home, on Feb 2. They met in Beijing, where he was studying. The couple were in India before the virus outbreak.

Meanwhile, I continue my "editing" at home.