Smalltown Mississippi here. Masks seem to be getting more common by the day. They are required at our farmer’s markets, merely recommended everywhere else. (Which seems sort of backwards, since the farmer’s markets are outdoors, where I gather transmission is a lot less common … but whatever, I’ve got two homemade masks from a friend, so it’s all good.)
Lots of people out and about for walks. Kind of a permanent lazy-weekend feeling.
I went out for tacos from the taco truck today. There was a sign saying to wait inside your car with the windows down until your number was called, but nobody really seemed to be doing that, in large part because I can’t imagine you’d actually be able to hear if you weren’t within one or two parking spaces of the taco truck. There was another sign saying to keep six feet apart. Everyone was doing that.
Most retail has been closed for the last month, but is starting to open up. Both the local pie shop and the one sushi place in town have just reopened over the last week and a half, curbside pickup only. I’ve been to the pie shop a few times. Sushi restaurant is reportedly SLAMMED, so I’m giving it a few weeks to settle down.
The not ever being more than a couple blocks from my apartment thing is kind of weird. Living in a small apartment, we used to spend much of our time outside. That’s kind of the main reason we live here is having the ability to walk around the city doing stuff, going to neighborhood bars and restaurants, sitting in coffee shops and whatnot.
On a conference call on Monday, one of my coworkers asked me how my weekend was. I’m like “Idonno. Pretty much the same as every other day I guess at this point.”
I live just outside of a small city and work in a school outside of another small city a short drive away. Our kids go to a school also outside town.
Taiwan is doing really well with it, and it’s been about three weeks since the last domestic transmission, with the rest either being the fiasco on the navy ship or returning Taiwanese who contracted Covid overseas. There haven’t been any new cases for four or give days straight. In total, there have only been 10 cases of community transmission (from unidentified contacts).
Taiwanese really took to social distancing early on. The schools were closed for two weeks in February while preparations were being made including having enough masks for the children, all classrooms getting alcohol stray disinfectants, and electronic thermometers, etc.
Large events have been cancelled, all the school events are gone and that sort of level. Restaurants are open, most businesses are, but certain types of drinking establishments are not such as hostess club karaoka bars. I have never been to ones here in Taiwan, but the ones in Japan would be crazy places for spreading viruses.
Because of the successes so far, they are starting to relax some of the controls.
I don’t get the “calculated risk” part. If you have a nanny come in regularly, then you’re about as “locked down” as she is, and not much more. And considering that she’s willing to come to your place, it’s likely that she’s not being as strict about it as you are.
On our end, we’ve canceled my wife’s cleaning lady, out of similar concerns. There’s not much point of enduring all sorts of lock-down sacrifices and then undermining it by allowing prolonged exposure to someone who may not be keeping any sort of social distancing for all you know (and who is certainly keeping less than you are).
As to the title question, ISTM that public enthusiasm for the lockdown is fading significantly here in Central NJ. Traffic - both foot and vehicular - seems to have picked up a lot since the earliest days of the lockdown, and people seem to be getting less strict about the 6 foot separation as well (though mask use seems to have increased). And as time goes on, I expect that trend to continue. There’s only so much of this that people can or will take, and there’s a big difference in how much people will comply if they think it’s a week or so and back to normal vs if they don’t see an end in sight.