Pandemic diary - week 34

Monday, 2 November 2020

Yesterday I met my girlfriend’s mother. We had long thought whether this would have been a considerate move, yet given she goes to work every day, has no underlying illnesses and that my girlfriend visits her anyway, we gave it a go. What a whiff of normalcy.

On my facebook profile I post a controversial note in which I am trying to analyse whether street protests in Belarus and USA (Black Lives Matter marches) have contributed to a rising number of infections. Charts of new infections in both countries do not support the assertion that protesters spread the virus excessively.

 

Tuesday, 3 November 2020

I pay a first visit to a family under Szlachetna Paczka. I must say the sanitary regime is strictly abided by. Nevertheless is with a six-feet distance and with face masks worn by all meeting participants, a 90-minute sit-up in one room is a risky behaviour.

My mother has an intensifying pain in her hip, but due to unavailability of health service (and partly on account of fear of going to a doctor) she can do nothing about it. I do worry about her.

 

Wednesday, 4 November 2020

I feel slightly off-colour, with sore throat, sore muscles and slight cough. With hindsight – this lasted just one day. Maybe not a big reason to worry about myself, but I do worry I could inadvertently have infected someone vulnerable.

The prime minister announced new restriction due to come into effect on Saturday and defines a threshold of new infection which will trigger a lockdown. A step in a good direction in communication with the public, yet could have been simpler and more precise. Now we know if 7-day trailing average of new infections hits around 27,000, a “national quarantine" would be called. The prime minister fails to pin down how the next set of restriction would impact the economy and social life, but mentions restrictions in moving around. I remind you constraining constitutional rights can be done by a bill (ustawa), not by a decree (rozporządzenie) and given the scale of restrictions, to make them legal, the government should have declared a state of natural disaster (stan klęski żywiołowej) a few weeks ago.

 

Thursday, 5 November 2020

The ministry of health announced a few days ago it would deem genetic tests as a valid confirmation of coronavirus detection. This does not seem to impact statistics anyhow.

Figures on number of death in Poland in October 2020 come to the light. 47,593 people departed this world in my country over the previous months, against long-term average of around 34,000 deaths in October. This means mortality has increased by 40%, yet only one-fourth of it (or 3,122) can be directly attributed to deaths from diagnosed COVID-19. The remainder, i.e. around 12,000 lives can be put down to inadequate access of health service in recent weeks. I fear the figures for November might be even more horrific.

 

Friday, 6 November 2020

Shopping malls are besieged by customers before they close until at least 29 November 2020. Crowds inside denote people no longer give a damn about the pandemic and social discipline witnessed in March and April 2020 remains just a memory.

Around 7 p.m. the government finally publishes a decree governing restrictions in effect from tomorrow. All of a sudden, furniture shops, declared to remain open, are due to be shut down. Beware though, not all, those small enough do not have to close.

 

Saturday, 7 November 2020

Finally some heartening news. Donald Trump loses his presidential stool in the United States. His defeat is the biggest positive side effect of the pandemic.

I visit two other families under Szlachetna Paczka, but eventually none of the 3 families visited so far will deserve wise aid. I wonder why the fact do I risk my health. By the end of the year I will spill my regrets in a separate post.