Stories of people during the quarantine. Altyn Moldokulova

At the beginning of the year, in January, I saw in the news and the Internet that the outbreak of coronavirus epidemic was identified in the city of Wuhan in China. At that time I thought that there would be no further infection beyond China and South Korea.

Of course, when the virus got to Kyrgyzstan, it was a shock. Just recently it was noisy and fun, people moved freely, and now only by necessity. For our small country, it’s a very big difficulty.

Despite various messages and news, I did not notice a panic in our community. The local self-government is trying to control the situation with the supply of flour, and so that the price does not increase, they supply flour, oil and all vital products, and goods for the people. There is no shortage, everything is in stores, flour, for example, costs 1350 soms, all the products are on store shelves.

Now it is noticeable how people are changing consciousness and attitude towards each other. We with our reputable women from the Women's Council of our village at our own expense distributed 650 masks for medical staff, employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Emergency Situations. In addition, we have the organization called “Nur Tamchy” - these are the 1983 graduates of Alai district. They gave a modern ambulance car with all the necessary equipment as a present to our municipality.

Of course the pandemic negatively affected all spheres of life. Shayyr Apalar folk group participants are all at home. As a director of the historical and ethnographic museum of Kurmanzhan Datka I’m not sure if we will have any visitors this year, as most of them are usually foreigners. Our family also has a roadside cafe “Salkyn Tor”, where we have 6 yurts, and now no one knows for how many months everything will be closed. Now the whole business is suffering, and it is very difficult for the whole country. But the most important thing for us is to be healthy and safely overcome everything.

Overcoming coronavirus is not the matter of two or three people, it is a matter of each of us! We must be as disciplined as possible under quarantine conditions, follow hygiene rules and, thanks to our joint efforts with the whole world and patience in the days of quarantine, we will be able to overcome this ailment. We survived the difficult days from 1992 to 1998, when there was a shortage of everything, we ate only corn and rye. And now you just need to show maximum patience and stay at home.