Coronavirus still here..calm before storm? #homedays

“Hi, how are you doing?,” our neighbor asked me out of the blue.

“We are managing, but I’m worried about my family in Europe.”

“What is the situation there now?,” she replied.

In a few sentences I told her that it wasn’t the best. Of course, I was surprised that she had no idea how things were on the other side of the Atlantic. Maybe it’s better that way, because what’s the point of reading more bad news, especially if you don’t even have loved ones in Europe.

All schools and kindergartens are now all closed, at least until the first week of April.

The mood is mixed. The shelves are rather empty, but not all and not always. There is still a lack of toilet paper, antibacterial gels. Sometimes it takes up to two days for delivery for online shopping. It’s not like you can’t shop, you may only need to buy different brands.

People are sitting at home, but this is how you usually live. It was raining this weekend, but if the sun comes out and we feel the spring again, I doubt that everyone would still want to isolate themselves.

I think that the thought of forced-closed stores, streets paralyzes the local residents. Such a scenario is actually unimaginable here.

Last week I went to the cinema to see the Polish movie Corpus Christi, which I couldn’t resist seeing in an American cinema. There were a dozen or so people in the whole cinema. I found a great parking place. Screenings are not yet suspended here.

We are now staying mostly home, often washing or wiping our hands. We are lucky that Dean can, or actually has to work from home right now. His job even eased the costs of a new monitor. We don’t go to stores anymore. Unfortunately, Róża caught mononucleosis  and she had to go to the doctor. This time the visit to the doctor lasted up to three hours. Exceptionally, the first conversation took place in the parking lot, where she was also asked about the symptoms of the coronavirus. Dean claimed that the atmosphere seemed normal.

There are more confirmed cases of coronavirus in the Bay Area than last week. There are now 37 infected people in San Francisco County, including one I read about two UCSF staff today.

The worst situation is in Santa Clara County (about 1.5 hours by car from us). There are 114 people who are positive for coronavirus.

Events, meetings, sporting events, libraries, museums, pool classes, theaters – everything is closed. No one discusses these decisions. Rose’s Ballet School will organize online classes for children next week.

In our Alameda County , there are 15 cases are confirmed and latest two of them are the result of community spread . These infections from an unknown source caused that even the most stubborn schools convened the emergency meeting and decided to close the schools. More than 8,000 people were tested throughout California.

What else? City of Berkeley issued official recommendations on the positive effects of social distancing. I received a message from our parish in Berkeley about taking new guidelines during the mass, e.g. not giving hands, emptying holy water, not issuing holy Communion from the cup,  washing hands after each Communion. The bishop of the diocese of Oakland issued a dispensation for not attending Sunday mass. There are links to Mass online on the Oakland Diocese website.

Of course, Poles living here are very worried about their families in Europe, especially after decisions to suspend flights to and from Europe.

I think that the local health service would cope with a significant increases illnesses. I worry about what will happen if both Dean and I suddenly got sick at the same time. This new opponent is invisible, alien. I really don’t know how much preventive action has been taken here to protect us Maybe I read too much news from Europe and the film The Contagion preys on my imagination?

#homedays

Rose’s triage at the parking.

#homedays continue. Guess how does my private Polish candy look like now?:)

p.s. Here are the latest from California: