How drawing a comic strip in coronavirus quarantine helped artist see the funny side of 14 days alone in Room 1419

Sketching comic- strip frames kept Carol Bellese Choi sane during her time in quarantine in Hong Kong after her boyfriend fell ill with Covid-19

Finding humour in the situation ‘really was the best medicine’, says Choi – and health care professionals who use laughter as a therapeutic tool agree

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Carol Bellese Choi says sketching the funny side of quarantine life in Hong Kong helped her cope with her isolation and anxiety. Photo: courtesy of Carol Bellese Choi

Published: 3:00pm, 3 May 2020Updated: 6:20pm, 3 May 2020

Just as prisoners rarely forget their inmate identification number, Hong Kong artist Carol Bellese Choi is unlikely to forget 1419 – her room number at a government quarantine facility in Fo Tan where she was isolated for two weeks.

“The whole experience was very surreal,” says Choi, settling into a chair at a coffee shop in Wong Chuk Hang, the industrial district on the south side of Hong Kong Island where she works as a painter at the Elsa Jeandedieu Studio.

“My boyfriend contracted [Covid-19, the disease caused by the] coronavirus while travelling in France and, two days after arriving back in Hong Kong with his travel mate, who also tested positive, he was sent straight to Queen Mary Hospital,” says Choi. “We live together, so I was told by government health officials to pack as if I was going on holiday, so in went the laptop, books, towels and enough clothing for two weeks because I was told I couldn’t do laundry.”

At midnight on March 16, men in hazmat suits collected Choi from her North Point flat, put her on a minibus (she was the only passenger) and ferried her to the facility in the New Territories.

The room that Choi stayed in at the government quarantine facility in Fo Tan.

The 36-year-old soon fell into a routine: rise at 7am, meditate, have breakfast at 9am, host an 11am online yoga session with four other quarantined friends, including her boyfriend, eat lunch and dinner – “Chinese food such as rice, noodles, congee, mixed vegetables” – have video chats with her boyfriend and family (including her mother, who lives in Honduras in Central America), meditate some more, have regular temperature checks, read and indulge in a nightly fix of Netflix fare.

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