Social workers, volunteers and therapists invited to offer advice

On May 12, Beijing was abuzz with rumors that the city would be locked down next day, prompting many residents to stock up on groceries.

The rumors were quickly denied by the municipal government at a news conference that afternoon, with the authorities saying that daily supplies would not be affected and there was no need for panic buying.

These rumors have been dispelled, but as several cities grapple with a new wave of COVID-19 infections caused by the highly transmissible Omicron variant, concern for people's mental health during the pandemic has again become an important issue that different sides of society are working hard to address.

On April 28, psychological counselor Wang Xiaoting offered an open counseling session on social media, with residents in Shanghai, which has been under closed-loop management for more than a month, phoning in for help.

The first caller asked how he could deal with his family members' fear of the outbreak. After being diagnosed as an asymptomatic case and receiving treatment at a makeshift hospital, the man returned home, only to face misunderstanding and suspicion from his family.

"At the makeshift hospital, people were not scared. We ate well and slept well, but now I am home, my parents are suspicious and on their guard. No matter whether I am eating or talking, they want to keep their distance. I feel I am being marginalized," the caller said.

He added that his mother asked him to eat alone and to put his bowls on the ground after he finished his meals. After he used the toilet, she asked him to disinfect the bathroom.

"I tried to convince them, telling them that Omicron is not as harmful as they think, but they didn't believe me," he added.

The second caller also shared her fear of being discriminated against after she became infected. She was placed in quarantine for nearly two weeks after testing positive, and still thinks she may have caught the disease from her husband.

The woman, who works at a pharmacy, said she could not bear the thought of her colleagues treating her differently if they found she had been infected.

"I work in the public health sector, so I dare not let my friends or colleagues know I was infected. I am afraid that if I tell them, they will view me differently, and this will alienate me," she said.

She added that she took precautions against COVID-19, but her husband failed to take protective measures after their neighbors were diagnosed with the disease.

"I am not afraid of COVID, because I know it is curable. But I feel that I contracted it because of my husband's negligence. He's the one who gave me the infection," she said.

Wang, who has practiced psychological counseling for 19 years, said the anxiety voiced during the pandemic is reasonable, as such emotional instability stems largely from the nature of the contagious disease. As everyone wants to steer clear of the virus, this causes mistrust and tension between people.

"We fear unknown and uncontrollable things, just like the very beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. We didn't know what the virus was, how we could protect ourselves, or if we would die," she said.