General Discussion

I keep track of news and how the world is doing with coronavirus, but I haven't commented about it because it hasn't affected me at all, really. I've always been extremely sheltered by my parents. I don't have any real life friends that I can visit, and I never really have. I rarely ever left the house. I haven't been taught how to drive yet. So the quarantine has been very strange for me in a way because it feels like I've been quarantined my entire life. It's been kind of shattering, and it's very difficult for me to talk about, and I have to admit I've been afraid to post about it at all. I feel almost guilty talking about it since it affects my life so little. But still, the few times that I've been taken on shopping trips recently were very jarring. Shelves cleared out, everyone wearing masks and staying far away from each other, employees leaving boxes everywhere instead of bothering to restock, protective barriers in front of cash registers. But I've only visited very small stores. My dad tells me about how insanely crowded and cleared out the major stores are. It confuses me. Crowding is the opposite of what you should do at the moment.

Small gatherings of ten people or less have been allowed in our town again. Outside of stores, most things have seemed normal around us. You still see folks in their yards and a couple of people walking down the street sometimes. Since I live in a rural, small-town area, from my backyard at least, things seem normal. Going for a walk down the street, there's a strange high activity level of cars passing by. I wonder where they're all going.

There are lots of small businesses around here, and I'm very worried about them. I don't know how many have closed, and how many might not open again. There were many I would have loved to visit and support. I hope I still get to have that chance.

Our local greenhouse is still open for the summer, and it's one of my very favorite places even though I can't visit often. It gives me hope. It seems like, for now, the situation with coronavirus here is slowly getting better. It may not affect me, but I'm sincerely concerned about it and I care very deeply for all of my fellow human beings out there who are suffering. I'm here for you all, thinking about you and supporting you. Stay safe. <3

I'm pretty much already housebound, the only real difference is mail taking a little longer and no more trips to the grocery store next door for random cheese. Unfortunately I have some weird infection in my foot that needs surgery, so I've been forced to go to 2-3 appointments a week to figure out if that's even possible without risking amputation (good news: I'm apparently healthier than I should logically be)

Wearing a mask works for me as long as I can take it off for a moment when I'm not around people, and I'm SO not going back to handshakes when this is over. Life works fine without being forced to let strangers touch you.

As for how long it will last, my city just moved its major annual event from June to September (still subject to change) and without any of the usual events that lead to crowds.

So, my nieces and nephews might have gotten exposed to the virus. Fun times! Because of that, my mother and siblings might have been exposed as well. Spectacular! *Sarcasm mode*

Not going to lie, I am worried for them and I'm worried for the person they were exposed by because they have a very elderly father.

It's so strange watching how the rest of the world has handled things compared to New Zealand. I don't know what else to say, because I know my experience of things is so...vastly different to the average person in a different country.

While I didn't expect to be working during the Level 4 lockdown, I don't like that I was potentially exposed from being at the hospital and my request for a test was ignored - still hasn't been done, but I never developed symptoms besides a cold in the weeks after and from reading Imgur and seeing detailed accounts of people who had tested positive I'm glad it never got worse than a cold.

For us it's like life has gone back to "normal" except we now have social distancing in place everywhere....except fish and chip shops apparently

[quote name="CelestialKofi" date="2020-06-03 23:28:42" ] For us it's like life has gone back to "normal" except we now have social distancing in place everywhere....except fish and chip shops apparently [/quote] fish and chip shops are exempt from the law. they're too important.

In Austria everything is almost back to "normal" honestly. Of course there is the keeping distance, wearing masks, but like in the city I'm in we have like only 5-6 active cases left.

BUT I just found out last week that I could possibly have been a contact case 2 months ago and didn't know, since the person in question didn't tell anyone until now.
(and it is unknown if she's lying or not, it's a complicated story)
I just hope she didn'T have it, stay safe everybody ~

I'm really questioning the state of my country, as it's leading in cases and deaths (1.86mil+ and 107k+, respectively), but also has to deal with an upcoming election and 43+ million unemployed people. And add that to recent events, and you get chaos... I'm afraid a war could break out. I wish the government could just work together and not be divided over how the country should operate and who to "blame". It's supposed to be "for the people", but it looks like an aristocracy or something.

On the other side, many countries are doing pretty well in terms of cases and deaths. Some are also effecient in testing, some even going as far as RE-testing people. My country barely has people tested, at around 5% of the population.

Tbh, the trendlines of my country is quite predictable (always going up on a graph of counts over time). I hate to be right in the counts, namely hitting 1 million cases and 100k deaths. I still can't believe at one point the country had 1/3 of the global count of cases and deaths...

EDIT: Hold up, just found the numbers to increase again... Fortunately, more people got tested, of a total of 18-ish million.

I need to arrange some time to hang out with my one friend. Figure out the best way to do it. If not for all this, I would have been seeing Monsta X on the 14th with her. I worry she’s out protesting... Social awareness is good but big rallies?? Please wear masks everyone.

guess who's been working all this time in the ER in New York City, has avoided basically everything up until this point, and riiiight as we're due to reopen due to falling case rates...

i prrrrrrobably have covid :')

tests are still taking like, way too long to come back (shouldve just gone to work and checked myself in to get it done, that way it'd be back in like 3 hours, and not 4 days...), but my doc is saying it's looking pretty likely, haha. came down with a cough around memorial day, thought it was seasonal allergies, and now i've got shortness of breath that my inhaler just isnt helping at all with. like. cool, thanks. just had to tag me on its way out, huh?

i'm not gonna lie to yall. i'm scared. i know numbers are in my favor but still. i'm registration, and i really can't describe to you the chill of knowing what happened to the person you talked to only yesterday, just from scanning forms. i'm gonna be pretty liberal with my antianxiety meds, but like. guys, this sucks. being an insider and being up to your eyes in the worst of the worst makes it suck all the more.

at least my favorite sushi place is back open. i think i owe myself some nice chirashi after this.
also people in my neighborhood need to cool it with boarding up. we barely get trick or treaters. yall think everyone's gonna run all the way down here? c'mon now.