Coronavirus journal – Living in a coronavirus pandemic
25 March 2020
These are strange and scary times as the Covid-19 pandemic grips the planet. Nobody could ever have imagined anything so frightening could happen in our lifetimes. As of yesterday, the UK is in lockdown. This means that nobody is allowed to leave their homes except to shop for food and medicines, to care for a vulnerable person, to exercise once a day or to go to work only if it isn’t possible to work from home. Prior to that, we were asked to carry out social distancing, a minimum of two metres from another person, with a ban on all gatherings. Sadly, this was largely ignored, especially on Sunday (Mothering Sunday) when hordes of people took advantage of the beautiful spring weather. This resulted in the government having to act quickly and severely to try and slow down the spread.
The schools and universities closed last week for the majority of pupils. Exams have been cancelled, or may take place remotely online. As of yesterday everyone is working from home. Thank goodness for technology! Visiting shops means risking our health as not everyone respects the two metres distance rule. The virus can be spread so easily, and panic buying has been rife for the past two or three weeks.
Fabulous spring weather
On the positive side, we have been blessed with fabulous spring weather. Not to mention that the lack of traffic means that the air is clean and the countryside is stunning! Nature is happily just getting on doing what it does best, undisturbed by human intervention. This is going to be a massive wake up call to humanity on a global scale. We will need to reassess how we live, travel, spend, abuse the planet and expect to be able to buy anything at any time of the day and have it delivered the next day, or sooner.
However, many fantastic community initiatives have been set up to help those in need who can’t get out, as a lot of people are having to self-isolate for the next twelve weeks. It’s unimaginable how everyone will get through it. There are also some heart-breaking stories of scams, thefts from doorsteps and violence towards the police trying to break up groups of people who are then spitting to spread the disease. But these are surely the minority? Hopefully human nature will show its good side and overcome this terrifying pandemic?
Joy
Kibworth & Smeeton WI
