As the coronavirus continues to spread worldwide, a Tamaqua man living in Hong Kong hopes things return to normal in the coming months.

Brandon Taylor, a 2005 graduate of Tamaqua Area High School, has been abroad in China for roughly 10 years. He’s spent three years in Beijing and seven in Hong Kong. The past couple of months have been stressful.

“There definitely was a sense of panic late in January and early February, when news of coronavirus was just starting to be reported,” Taylor said. “There was a lot of uncertainty about how bad this thing was: how many people were affected, how many were dying and how bad Hong Kong would be hit. Given that most of the news at the time was coming out of China (where the virus originated), there were doubts about the accuracy of information being released and so that probably caused things to escalate.”

Taylor said that a few months ago, locals rushed out to buy hand sanitizer and surgical masks.

Long lines of people searching to obtain a few simple items outside of pharmacies and grocery stores became the new normal.

Taylor has improvised by having masks and sanitizer shipped over from the United States.

“Then they started panic buying toilet paper and tissues — there was about two weeks when I couldn’t find either in the grocery store,” Taylor said.

Taylor works for an international financial news and data firm as the regional editor and content producer.

“The general situation over here is that many businesses are letting people work from home to limit people-to-people contact during morning and evening commutes, as well as within offices to limit the spread of the coronavirus.

“For me, I’ve been working from home the full month of February and will likely be the early weeks of March.”

According to Taylor, Hong Kong hasn’t been as chaotic as it’s been in mainland China.

“Less panic buying and more people out and about, although many still wearing protective surgical masks. Restaurants are still open but they take your temperature before letting you in (using these hand-held thermometer devices) and most are only ever about half full with patrons.

“Also, most of the government offices are reopening and private businesses trying to get back to business as usual. Most office buildings have been closed since late January with employees working from home.”

There have been 12 deaths in the U.S. from COVID-19. More than 100,000 cases have been reported worldwide. The states that have reported cases are: Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Washington and Wisconsin.

“I think most people are still on edge and will be cautious, as they should be. Hong Kong has been hit by pathogens and viral outbreaks in the past (SARS in 2003), so people here know what’s at stake. So it’ll probably be some time (maybe another 4-5 months) before things return to normal but that really depends on how this thing plays out.”