This week, Aaron has chosen the word crisis for our writing inspiration.
We seem to be fast approaching another crisis in Ontario around Covid. We had pretty great numbers in August and September, really great actually. But now the second wave is upon us and it’s starting to get bad.
During the first wave, our highest recorded numbers were in the high hundreds. Daily totals of like 600 I think? Now our new daily numbers are pushing into the 1000’s. They are predicting that if we don’t change our ways soon, that in December we could be hitting the 6,000s DAILY CASES.
HOW INSANE IS THAT!?
That’s like Florida back in April and May. I’m sorry to those living in Florida, but those hot spots were INSANE just because people wanted to go to the bar? Please. SMH
Anyway, so on Friday it was announced that Toronto and Peel are entering the lockdown phase again starting at midnight tonight (12:01 am Monday morning). Things are a little bit different this time around though so here’s what the means:
- It’s gonna last 28 days until December 21st.
- schools/child care centres are staying open
- Doctor’s offices and pharmacies are staying open
- Essential stores are staying open (grocery, hardware, supply stores etc) at 50% capacity
- all other stores are curbside pickup or delivery only
- No indoor or outdoor dinning – take out or delivery only
- no gatherings inside your house – only people you live with
- Gatherings outside of 10 or less, with social distancing rules in place
- Places of worship are no longer allowed to operate at 30% capacity, but must drop to 10 people max in the building
- Movie theatres, casinos, gyms etc are closed (but I think they have been for a while now)
- sports and recreations, classes, lessons – I think all are cancelled.
Now what is different this time around is that there are only 2 regions that are in this modified lockdown. So the problem becomes this: will people go to other regions for things? There is no travel ban, and it would be IMPOSSIBLE to police. Malls are closed except for essential services in them. But the stores are encouraged to develop a curbside pickup option and continue to sell online.
With the holiday season upon us, this is very interesting and tricky. I get that people want to buy in a store but they need to stay home right now. There is a large scale plea for people to boycott places like Amazon and Walmart and to shop at local small businesses, but that is also a little impractical for a lot of people. For instance, I don’t have a car – if I wanted to shop at one of these small businesses, I would have a hard time doing so.
Thankfully I don’t do a lot of extra shopping. For the foreseeable future all I will need is groceries and a pharmacy. Possibly a dollar store but that is usually all non-essential things
And double thankfully, I did all my weekly shopping on Friday before the announcement was made! I went to the dollar store to get supplies for Christmas gifts for my students. I went to Walmart and got new sheets and pj’s. I like to see these things before I buy them. Starting on Monday I can’t go into the store to look at these non-essential items. I also did my weekly grocery shopping a few hours before the announcement and missed the panic shopping that will inevitably happen this weekend – even though the grocery stores are staying open!
So we are heading into crisis mode once more. Hopefully things will settle down and people will be responsible. I know I will be! I can’t speak for others, or even for people who live in this house since they seem to not care about rules (even house rules) but I can only control myself and make sure I am doing the best I can.
Most of our state is in lockdown again too. Thankfully, our county follows the rules (mostly) so we are safe for a little while. Things change almost daily though.
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Yeah things are changing every day here too. Its the Thanksgiving/Halloween socialization that is catching up to us now. People went to dinners and parties and now we are paying the price. Like even the kids in the one section that needed to be in full isolation, Thanksgiving weekend were still going to dinners and visiting people. Its so insane. Like just follow the rules – they suck, I get it, but you’re making it worse!
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Pingback: Sunday Scribblings #28 – Crisis | The Confusing Middle
Pingback: Crisis | The Confusing Middle
*cries in British*
We average 20,000 new cases a day… The new lockdown is barely making a dent in the numbers.
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Lol how does one cry in British?! 😂😂 but dang!!! I am starting to realize I will be in Toronto for Christmas, unless the schools close before and I have isolation for a bit
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With a posh accent I guess? 😂
Christmas will certainly be a bit weird for everyone this year… But if it means protecting people so we can all have many more healthy Christmases, I’m all for it. Do you think there’s a chance school will close early if the number of cases keeps climbing?
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Im not sure if the schools will close. The government wants to keep them open as long as possible. If they do close early then I could go home!
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I am sorry for everyone overseas, and feel I must apologise for being eternally grateful I live in Australia. The territory I live in hasn’t had a case of community transmission for 139 days. Australia had 1 community transmission case yesterday. We get a number in quarantine hotels from returning Aussies (from overseas) but they are in quarantine from arrival so I kinda discount that. We have 99 active cases in the country.
One of our states, Victoria, who locked down hard (allowed out for groceries, medical and solo exercise all within 5km of home) for 112 days after a second wave haven’t had a new case for 27 days, so the lockdown worked.
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Sssoooo lucky! Our provincial government just announced no Christmas gatherings outside of our own households. My brother lives alone so he’s allowed to join another household aka probs my parents. But I live in a massive hot spot and my work is so high risk. And I live with a whole bunch of people. So I’ll slowly get my own things and do cook my own dinner before the actual holiday. Our second wave is just WOW right now
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Because all out states closed their borders we didn’t make plans (family gathering at my brother’s in another state. Now looks like borders will mostly be open, but too late – it’s a 16 hour drive and hotels will be booked out now). So just the 4 of us this year.
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That can be good too! Intimate family holiday
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