CV Report #2

I thought it was time I filed another CoronaVirus (CV) report since it's been 3 weeks since the last one and we all know how much can change in 3 weeks with this monster!!

Unfortunately, part of my morning routine is scanning the headlines on Yahoo.com and checking the latest CV statistics to see how we're doing (or not doing).  I've kept a daily log of the counts because it was the only way for me to see if progress was being made.  In a nutshell, the past week has seen new cases drop from double digits (percentages) to single.  I won't bore you with the daily numbers, but here's a summary:

March 17th:

• Spain ordered into a 2-week lockdown

March 23rd:

• Spain = 29,909
• Balearic Islands (where I live) = 331
• USA has now passed Spain in CV cases

March 30th:

• Spains lockdown has been extended to April 13th

• Spain = 78,797
• an increase of 48,888 (163%) in just one week
• BI = 958
• an increase of 627 since last week
• an average of 90 per day

April 6th:

• Spain = 130,759
• an increase of 51,962 (66%) in just one week
• an average of 7,423 per day
• BI = 1,293
• an increase of 335 (35%) since last week
• an average of 48 per day

April 13th:

• Spain = 166,019
• an increase of 35,260 (27%) since last week
• an average of 5,037 per day
• BI = 1,534
• an increase of 241 (19%) since last week
• an average of 34 per day

Today, April 14th:

• Spain = 169,510
• an increase of 3,491 (2%) since yesterday
• BI = 1550
• an increase of 16 (1%) since yesterday

I was in Madrid starting Feb 28 and then Cologne, Germany starting March 6th.  I returned to Mallorca just 1 week prior to the lockdown orders.  EEEK!!!!

On Saturday, April 4th, on a sunny near-70 day, I went for a walk with Gracie to a park down the street. Three others were there with their dogs.  Later I went to Carrefour (the largest grocery here).  Plexiglass shields had been installed at each of the checkout counters.   I could only enter the store via one set of doors and exit from a different set of doors.  The carts had all been brought inside the store from the parking lot and a person was assigned to wipe them down.  The chips aisle was really picked over.  PRIORITIES!!!  At the butcher counter, crates were stacked to create separate queue lines.

On Weds, April 8th, I ventured out on my moto to the central Post Office.  There's one actually closer to where I live but I really wanted to go to this one as it takes me along the waterfront.  BUT, there was a police blockade (funneling down to one lane) where the avenue met with the waterfront arterial.  They were stopping everyone to question where they were headed and for what reason (only grocery, medical, work, and pharmacy are allowed).  The PO was open but hours restricted to 9:30am - 12:30pm only.  I told the officer (yes, in Spanish) I had a package to mail at the main office.  He also asked where I lived, then he waived me on.  When I arrived at the PO, there was a line out the door and up the sidewalk with maybe 15 people each distancing themselves by a good 10 or more feet.  A security guard controlled when someone was allowed to enter...one out/one in.   

On Thursday, April 9th, I finally decided to go check out the roof of our building.  Last year, work was being done, laying down tiles which I thought was odd for a roof...maybe they were creating a patio for our use?  Time passed and, for the past year and a half, a project has been underway to install an elevator by cutting out a portion of the stairwell of our 100 yo 5-story building.  Being somewhat lazy, I figured I would wait until the elevator was done so I didn't have to climb 5 stories to see the roof (bad knee, ya know).  But, CV came along just as they were finishing up tests of the elevator.  Now that we've been stuck inside our homes for weeks and, worse yet, the weather has turned gorgeous (72 and sunny all this week) I decided to go check it out.  Gracie and I climbed the stairs to the unlocked door and....voila.....a 12 x 35 paradise!!!   One couple was already up there with sun chairs and wine.  It's always amazing to see the neighborhood surroundings from 'on high' because you discover so many things you can't see from the street level.  Like the beautiful, long house that sits back from the edge of the top of a neighboring building and has a wrap-around patio.  DAMN!!!   And, all the other rooftop patios people have where they can go soak up the sun.  I'm so JEALOUS!!!

I was scheduled for another Home Exchange trip on April 13th to Toulouse, France.  I had to cancel it, but the host and I were able to schedule an alterntive date in August.  The airlines have been allowing changes without penalty, so that made it easier.

Our lockdown has been extended AGAIN...this time to April 25th.  There's been talk about lifting SOME restrictions in a phased manner.   Due to our low numbers here in Mallorca, I've been hoping they would at least allow us to roam about, while still maintaining distancing) so we could at least get out of the house and enjoy a walk, jog, or in my case...a moto adventure.  Businesses would still remain closed so it's not like we would be anywhere near back to normal.  But....they haven't asked for my opinion!!!

Here's a photo of the (very popular) street around the corner from my apartment.  zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

I thought I got my wish this morning because I saw an online article where the autopista (freeway) was jammed with traffice this morning due to a lift in restrictions.  WHUH????  The stupid article didn't explain WHAT was lifted and WHICH restrictions remained in force.  GRRRR   Apparently, only construction activity is back 'on'.  The rest of us need to remain inside.   GRRRRRRRRRR

Last Saturday, April 11th, I headed to the grocery store again.  Line out the door and around the corner.  No way!!!  What changed that this was happening?  I didn't stop.  I went to another.  Same thing.  Then it dawned on me they were shopping for Easter which was the next day.  I decided to head home and come back on Monday.  Monday afternoon, I headed to my favorite store nearby.  Closed.  Huh?  I went to another, then another.  All closed!   Apparently, Monday was a holiday, too.

Last time I wrote about the 'CV thing', I provided a bunch of suggestions of things you could do to mitigate boredom while being locked down.  Here's a few more:

• flip/rotate your mattress
• flip/rotate your sofa cushions
• Check the expiration dates on your spices
• Spray WD40 on your squeaky doors
• Cut the tangled hair off your vacuum cleaner roller brush
• defrost your freezer if not frostless
• Take a photo inventory of your belongings around the house in case you ever need it for insurance purposes
• Watch flashmob videos on YouTube
• Get your high school (or college) yearbooks out and see if you remember anyone.  Read the comments left by your classmates, signed by only their first name, then try to figure out who 'Steve' is.
• According to their comments, you were nice...BACK THEN!!!
• You had hair...BACK THEN!!!
• You didn't have a gut...BACK THEN!!!
• Your tits and your ass were higher...BACK THEN!!!
• You didn't wear bi-focals...BACK THEN!!!
• The girl/boy on page 97 is the person you ended up marrying.
• The girl/boy on page 114 is the person you WISHED you ended up marrying!!!

I'm gonna leave you with this excellent 'article' written by my friend Reg (of Reg & Cherry) who live in Cuenca, Ecuador (formerly of Colorado).  Since I used to live in Cuenca, I imagined the concerned queries I might have received if I were still living there.  It's very easy to get a distorted impression of what's happening by only seeing/reading what's in the news.  It's not that the news is WRONG...it's that many times it doesn't give you the complete picture.  If you've read about Ecuador lately, you might be envisioning dead bodies lying everywhere and Ecuador is in a state of collapse.  Reg, however, is 'feet on the ground'.  He posted this on Facebook but most of you wouldn't see it.  So, I copied and pasted his report here. 

FOR ALL OUR US FRIENDS

To say that ALL of Ecuador is bad because a single city is in trouble, is like saying, all of South Dakota is bad because Rapid City is in trouble. Or, because Louisiana allowed the Mardi Gras or Florida allowed Spring Break, all of the United States is bad.

The city of Guayaquil, on the coast, springboard to the Galapagos and an international port, was overwhelmed when an asymptomatic rich woman with a large family returned from Italy. There was a BIG family/friends “Welcome Home” party. She apparently infected, unknowingly, a large number of people who became “asymptomatic walking infected” spreaders throughout virtually the entire city, including infecting the mayor of Guayaquil.

The health services were immediately overwhelmed, as was the entire service sector. While the country was an early adopter of quarantine, there was poor compliance in Guayaquil. And, since the land approach to Guayaquil is lined with one after another vegetable, fruit, fish, etc. vendor carts for miles, it was, and still is, difficult to ensure compliance. Additionally, this is a country of huggers, and multi-generational housing, all encouraging spread of any disease. There is also a current problem with Dengue Fever on the coast. And, since Covid-19 testing here is as problematic as that in the US, it is probable that some of these deaths were from Dengue Fever.

Ecuador's Minister of Health, Juan Carlos Zevallos, stated that the death rate in Guayaquil has recently been about 50-70% higher than normal, compared to the same period in recent years. How can any city effectively handle that, without lots of money and a long lead time?

With insufficient trucks to remove the dead from their homes, bodies were moved to the street. The funeral parlors in Guayaquil were totally overrun, and coffins were lacking, thereby slowing the movement of dead bodies. The government stepped in and now, prisoners are now making coffins with donated lumber to supply to poor families. Trucks to transport bodies have also been acquired. Relatives can now remove the bodies from hospitals within 24 hours following death. If families fail to do so, the Government assumes the task of burial, at no cost.

The situation in Guayaquil IS tragic and 72% of the Covid-19 cases in Ecuador are in Guayaquil. However, a single tragic situation does not make it so in the rest of the country…

Because the country was an early adopter of quarantine, the rest of the country “locked down.” How each Ecuadorian mayor responded to the lock down varied, as each governor’s response to statewide lock down varies in the United States, and each mayor's response varies in response to a statewide mandate.

Travel into and out of the country was halted weeks ago, plus travel between provinces, each governed by their own mayor, was also halted. A system of license plate travel based on the last number of your license plate, was enacted. Required documents for travel within the country were imposed and intentionally very difficult to acquire. A number of expats trying to return to the US actually got stuck here because the shutdown was so fast, and so complete.

I feel like Cuenca, where I live, is one of the safest places, possibly in the world, to be, short of living alone on a remote island. The city has been on curfew for weeks, allowing outside your house travel ONLY between the hours of 5:00am - 2:00pm. If you are caught outside your house after those hours, you are fined. If you travel in a car on the wrong day based on your plate number, you are fined. The fines are $100 for the first violation and $500 for the second violation. For a country where the indigenous population averages $300/month in wages, these are significant fines.

Cuenca sterilizes taxis every three (3) hours. Cuenca sterilizes the streets every night. Masks and gloves are required for everyone on the streets and in taxis. The Mercados are all shut down, and are currently being sterilized. Only one person from each family is allowed to shop. Most major stores spray your down and you walk through sterilizing surfaces on a rubber mat before entering a store. Carts are also sterilized after each customer’s use. Seniors have special shopping hours.

Is this perfect? Hardly, but I have yet to read about anything even remotely approaching this in the United States. I believe I am FAR safer here than I would be in the United States.

Ecuador has received substantial assistance from China, and none from the US.

Finally, the Vice President of Ecuador actually apologized for the mistakes made to date on April 4th. When is the last (or first) time the US President, Mr. “I don’t take responsibility at all” has said anything even approaching this humility, or, for that matter, showed any sympathy for lost lives…

On national television today, the Vice President Otto Sonnenholzner apologized to the population for the mistakes made in this health crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic and said that they cannot be committed again. "This week, Ecuador has suffered a sharp deterioration in its international image and we have seen images that should never have happened and, therefore, as your public servant, I apologize," Sonnenholzner said. The vice president thanked all the volunteers, movements, parties, associations, companies, officials, international organizations and the media that support the hard task of countering the virus. "Thank you for adding and not destroying like others who do not stop thinking about political opportunism and take advantage of this very difficult situation facing the country. We will continue to work with simplicity, humility and, above all, without rancor, the mistakes made cannot return to happen, but please do not lose hope and do not help the virus to spread. Take it seriously, for your children, your parents, your brothers," he added.

That's it!

Hopefully, I won't have to file many more CV reports!!

Dano