Office pressure

When she went to the hospital's clinic, the doctor told her she was just allergic to pollen after taking her temperature, checking her symptoms and asking her multiple questions. The doctor said more time would be needed to figure out exactly what she was allergic to.

Liu told her parents about the consultation later that day after her symptoms were relieved by medicine prescribed by the doctor, but they asked her to have another checkup the next day to make sure she had no symptoms related to novel coronavirus infection.

"My parents' request may sound like an overreaction, but it was out of their concern, so I did go to the hospital to check again," she said.

The next day, on her second visit to the hospital, a doctor calmed Liu down and said her symptoms were quite common among allergic patients and were not necessarily related to flu or pneumonia, adding that the most important thing was to figure out the source of the allergy.

It was last year, during her first spring in Beijing, that Liu discovered she had allergies.

She began coughing and sneezing and thought she had a cold or flu, two common illnesses at that time of the year.

Her symptoms were relieved after a doctor prescribed some medicine. But the doctor didn't find the source of the allergic reaction and asked her to take daily notes and watch out for any change in her physical health.

"I didn't have contact with so many kinds of pollen when I was in my hometown," Liu said. "Last year was my first time to have such symptoms, so I had no idea what caused it."

Her time in quarantine meant she had less exposure to pollen early on and her allergy symptoms appeared later this year.

But even though she got the allergy diagnosis confirmed at two checkups, her colleagues were still concerned.

"I told my boss that I had been checked twice and was just allergic to pollen, but she still politely asked me to work at home for a week and then get one more check, which made me quite embarrassed," Liu said.

"Some of my colleagues also texted me to comfort me and inquire about my symptoms. Then they implied that one more check would be good for everyone."

Liang Yan, who works as a computer support technician for a visual effects company in Beijing, was also asked by his employer to have a medical checkup because he was coughing, had a runny nose and was exhibiting other cold symptoms.

Liang, 28, first noticed the symptoms after his return to the office. At first his eyes itched, and then he began coughing and feeling tired.

"I have an allergic history, so I told myself it must be the same pollen allergy as before, but the continuous coughing made me nervous," he said. "I didn't know whether it was caused by the allergy or a cold, or the ongoing novel coronavirus pneumonia."

Liang started to have allergy symptoms, usually in springtime, when he was in high school in his hometown in Anhui province. They affected him a lot, but his parents thought he was just unwilling to focus on his studies and didn't pay too much attention to his sneezing, coughing and tiredness－symptoms that usually disappeared in two or three weeks.

He received his first medical treatment for his allergies after entering university in Beijing about eight years ago, when his condition was quite severe. He later discovered he was allergic to willow catkins and certain kinds of pollen.

"At that time, I was dizzy and had chest tightness and difficulty breathing," Liang said. "Since then, I've been very careful when I'm outdoors in the spring, as Beijing has many willows and different kinds of flowers."

There were more than 280,000 female willow trees growing within Beijing's fifth ring road last year, according to the city's Gardening and Greening Bureau, which is the main reason why catkins fly all over the capital each spring.

Pollen concentration monitoring by the Beijing Meteorological Service showed levels in the capital were extremely high last month, and people with pollen allergies were urged to avoid going out.

Liang went to the emergency treatment center at a hospital in Changping district because he thought the normal clinic might have been crowded and he wanted to avoid contact with too many people.

The medical staff asked him a series of questions, such as whether he'd had any contact with confirmed or suspected novel coronavirus patients or whether he had traveled abroad and to other highrisk places during the previous two weeks. They also checked his temperature twice.

"I passed a series of medical checks and the doctor finally diagnosed that I was allergic to pollen, which was accompanied by a common cold that may have been caused by the changeable weather," Liang said.

The diagnosis calmed his nerves and his allergic symptoms subsided after medication, although he still has a cold.