COVID19-What's Going On in Your Community?

In South West Scotland,

• Schools closed (yesterday was last day) except for special needs children and kids of essential workers.
• Universities also closed
• Pubs, cafes, restaurants, clubs, gyms all closed (but not take-aways).
• Over 70s advised to self isolate for next 2 weeks (expected to change to longer)
• Work at home if you can
• Shops near me recovering form panic buying - loo rolls available this morning.
• Massive government effort in terms of paying 80% of laid off people's wages and all sorts of grants, tax let-offs for business - exact details not clear yet. Lots of other economic measures too.

I'm not criticising the lack of perfect clarity - this is a huge demand on government and it's bound to take little while to sort all the details. I think I'll get some sort of grant to keep the business going but it's not quite clear how I get it yet.

MK

In Belgium easy to explain, Michael. Total lockdown and by yesterday 3 pm all borders are closed in and out excluding transports and few other things. The main airport is closed and here people seem almost disciplined. Different than Italy where all are crazy and the challenge is to avoid the controls, stay in parks, parties, music, and "movida". A few less in Spain where the situation is similar. It seems that in Gent where I live now there are not cases, at least for now.

I have ordered a couple of days ago a component from Farnell Uk but I have not yet received the shipment notification. I supposed it will arrive Monday. In the meantime, I got a UPS notification from US (Chicago ) that something is coming here. The expected delivery time is as usual.

Enrico

I'm in NE Texas, city of around 60,000.

So far we're about the same place as Sean, with the exception of not needing a permit to drive around. Most businesses are closing due to lack of people being out and about. We're having supply problems because of hoarding. We have 4 confirmed cases, with a possible 9 more. The only thing that's truly unsettling to me is how quiet it's become, and how greedy some people are.

Good luck to all!

Rick

Here in Dallas and Fort Worth area, we have even cars keeping a social distance like the people in stores. This is kind of nice since normally people are acting irresponsible on the roads. Traffic is very light with gas getting cheaper by the day. I can see definite economic downturn. Other than groceries, very little else except drive through. Normal sit downs are closed. Weird but so are the times. Stay save!

Clem

Ours here in the Comox Valley, BC (pop. about 70k) is very similar, except I don't think anything is really enforced yet with the exception of larger gatherings.

The numbers being reported are known to be very inaccurate - we know from hospital staff and area doctors that we have cases in the area, but Island Health does not seem to be reporting anything near that. Even so, we seem to be in good shape so far with numbers lower than the bigger centers.

Most people here seem to be following the lead of the bigger centres that have lockdowns though, and voluntarily distancing before it becomes a bigger problem, regardless of our slow-to-act leadership.

Stores appear to be adjusting well, with most switching over to have some form of free delivery or at least shopping services for pick-up outside the door. The two purchases we had in the past week (one for groceries, picked up; and one for pet food delivered) were easy and the people helping us were genuinely appreciative that we were also being cautious. Stores are also taking precautions in how many people are allowed in at one time, extra sanitizing time, and some are taping markers on the floors to guide people for distances.

The government is allowing immediate employment insurance to those out of work due to this virus, so that's a really good thing.

We are being extra cautious because my wife's parents are nearly 80 now.

I work from home, so my daily routine is much the same. The weekends will be a bit different, and shopping is less convenient. But all in all we're comfortable and healthy and being "stuck" here isn't really a hardship. We'll keep doing our part to help slow and hopefully stop the spread.

It's very stressful worrying about everyone and everything, but I know the world will make it through this too.

Hope everyone is able to stay safe, and also comfortable, while all this is going on.

-Nico

Enrico,

Sure Italians don't like following rules (or should I say, each one follows their own set of rules), but I am following very closely the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy from the UK, both because my family is there and many of my close friends, all over Italy, and I can assure you that people are not going around like crazy, trying to avoid controls anymore.There is still a minority of people that are moving too much perhaps, but the vast majority are taking this pandemic seriously. Anyway, the statistics on the active cases and the deaths you see now are not due to the behaviour kept in the last couple weeks, and definitely not since the lock down. Unfortunately there has been a huge mismanagement of the situation at the very beginning, where the combination of far too few tests carried out and the lack of restrictions on movements, made it hard to track down the virus in the attempt to stop it from spreading. This led to the point they are now. Hopefully the contagion should peak in a week (perhaps 2, due to the massive movement of people following the lock down in the north). Let's hope so.

Here in UK, so far, the Government has, in my opinion, failed to show proper leadership when it needed to, which in turn instilled the irrational/borderline panic behaviour in the public we are witnessing in the last week. I live in the North East England, and in the last week I haven't been able to find things like flour, pasta, cans of beans/vegetables at the supermarket, never mind toilet rolls. Never, in the 15 years I lived here, I have experienced that. Now, the Government seems to be more assertive and clear on its actions, so things are starting to improve. I just hope the experts are right, and all the measures taken so far have been rolled out at the right time.I do suspect, though, the response has been too slow so far, but I hope I'm wrong.

Hopefully in a few months all will be back to normality. In the meanwhile, stay safe everyone!

Fabio

I think this is a 911 type of event. We must be alert to a possible mutation after the numbers trail down. Pathogens are with us now and in the future. Social habits need updating!

Stay aware and safe,

Clem

Similar here down the road in North West England.

- This last week of university teaching moved to on-line delivery.

- Most university staff now working from home, so mass effort to get people equipped for remote working.

- Supermarket panic buying getting worse ( they are now even panic buying tins of haggis ! ). Still no toilet rolls, lots of empty shelves - about half of my usual weekly shop was out of stock.

- Social distancing measures not proving popular with the younger generation - Police last night had to break up around 130x 14-18 year olds gathered in the local park.

- Roads are a lot quieter. Campus is like a ghost town.

- Not aware of any local confirmed cases of COVID-19 as yet.

My crystal ball on future of pathogens in the United States:

• Our ratio of "ventilators and ICU beds per 1000 people" was caught on its heels.
• Without ICU beds and ventilators, our current politicians legacies will be attributed to the ones that created the death squad decision scenario - worst case example: 70+ year old smokers being pulled off ventilators for 20 year olds.
• We are having general industry help get our ventilator count up (Ford, GM, Tesla, GE).  We'll print money to get 'er dun'.
• Elective surgeries are delayed to later this year to free beds.
• We'll go full on with a shutdown of non essential activity to keep the ratio in check until the manufacturing takes off.
• As soon as the ventilator production math works out and the ICU beds are booked for the intended virus surge, it will be business as usual with a continued voluntary shelter in place for high risk individuals.
• It will be then on those high risk individuals to stay safe.  It's society a norm for one to die under hospital care - but not to die at home due to hospitals having no vacancy.
• Stocks will return in 18 months.

Unfortunately, it's not an apocalyptic scene, it's what your leaders think.