This is really good news. And to what extent is YOUR personal life returning to “normal”? How are you feeling about resuming pre-COVID activities with modifications?
For me, things already felt like they were back to “mostly normal” around a month ago, when traffic started returning to the streets. I actually kind of enjoyed biking to work on the utterly deserted streets near the beginning of the lockdown. But I’m still the only person in my entire office who shows up for work—everyone else has been doing home office since mid-March. It’s both a blessing and a curse: a blessing because I have complete solitude in which to concentrate, and a curse because without seeing my colleagues working around me I somehow feel less motivated to work myself.
My partner and I went to a museum on Sunday, one of the few ones that have reopened. (Legally they’re all allowed to reopen, but without any tourists around it seems most are in no hurry to do so.) The museum was largely empty of visitors, which again was something we found rather nice—no waiting in lines or trying to peek over people’s shoulders at the exhibits or being distracted by yammering in a dozen different languages. Even still, we were required to wear face coverings at all times, though we’re used to such rules by now.
We also visited a café for the first time since the lockdown began, and were again the only customers in the entire establishment. So it was a bit weird, but also quite nice as we got very attentive and fast table service. We’re looking forward to the €50 restaurant voucher that the city will be sending all households this month.
The one pre-lockdown activity we really miss is going to the cinema. I don’t think these have reopened yet, though they’re slated to soon. There will be rules about sitting apart from people not living in your household, which will suit us just fine—I don’t like sitting cheek by jowl with the other patrons anyway.
I and members of my family have had hospital appointments that were cancelled or indefinitely postponed due to the pandemic. One of these still hasn’t been rescheduled, and the other one had to be rescheduled for a hospital in another city(!) because the hospitals in Vienna still aren’t doing certain elective surgeries. We had to rent a car for about €75 to drive to this other hospital, which was kind of annoying.
Based on that scale, massive sporadically-masked crowd gatherings in the most infested American cities, with no social distancing in practice, must be a 10. I fear we in the US will have wasted 3 months of lockdown. And I don’t think we’re ever going to get people back inside again. I guess it’s “let the chips fall…” from here on out.
[del]Kenya[/del] Hawaii Restaurants open with restrictions. All food is pureed and sucked through a straw (non-plastic) inserted in a hole through your mask. :eek:;)
Oahu June 5 -
Dine-in restaurant service, the Honolulu Zoo, Royal Hawaiian Band, Koko Head shooting complex, archery range, People’s Open Markets, and swimming pools reopen. There’s no reopening date set for Hanauma Bay.
Maui June 1
Mostly open except: Not included in Monday’s reopening: bars, nightclubs, theaters, banquet halls, county community centers, and county gyms. There is no camping or use of grills allowed in county parks and beach parks.
Interisland flights will not require a 14 day quarantine end of the next week. Doesn’t apply to you unwashed tourists from the US and Other.
Haven’t seen anyone post this from the AP about China delaying release of information and ‘frustrating WHO’. Personally, I think this is an attempt to recover by the WHO, but it’s still interesting:
This part I find a bit of weasely bullshit:
From my perspective there are multiple things going on here. SOME folks in the WHO were, of course, aware of the CCP blocking data and covering things up, and wanted to try and use praise or whatever to get the CCP to open up (which didn’t work particularly well). But the WHO leadership I think…or at least some of it…was clearly in the CCPs pocket and DID collude with them to not only buff up the CCP but also to block their own people from saying things that the CCP wouldn’t have liked.
At any rate, figured I’d post it in here, though it’s not exactly breaking news to anyone who has been following along.
Israel has reopened its schools, and the virus has started appearing in several schools. The government has ordered every school to close if a case appears.
[ul]
[li] Today is the 100th day since the first confirmed infection in Austria.[/li][li] The government announced today that all travel restrictions from Germany, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Hungary will be lifted tomorrow. This makes Italy the only neighbouring country from which travel remains prohibited, despite Italy having opened its side of the border. Contrariwise, the Czech Republic is keeping its side of the border with Austria closed until at least 15 June.[/li][li] A poll found that 64% of employees would like to continue working from home, even after the crisis is over. This is despite the fact that 42% of respondents reported that they found themselves working a lot more when at home than when at the office, and around a third reported that they were taking fewer breaks.[/li][li] Current statistics: 16,771 confirmed infections, 670 deaths, 15,672 recovered.[/li][/ul]
