Diary: Living with a pandemic 33 (Sunday 26 April 2020)

New hits and a lost summer…

In Alberta a couple of major outbreaks of Covid-19 have put a damper on summer. We should not be surprised. This pandemic is far from dead.

The province’s chief medical office of health is taking a lot of flack these days because of the restrictions placed and continuing on gatherings. On 23 April 2020, she reiterated that “the mass gathering restrictions currently in place also apply to all summer events or festivals in Alberta. To be clear, the orders in place prohibit gathering of more than 15 people. Albertans are prohibited from attending any event that would violate these orders. While we are all eager for a relaunch and wanting to see an easing of restrictions, now is not the time to have people moving throughout the province and possibly unknowingly spreading the virus.”

Many people are calling for rules to be relaxed so they can get back to work, or at least play golf with their friends. Some regions are adopting plans that will see certain activities and businesses be allowed to open in the near term. The danger is that we have no idea about the full health impact of this virus or whether and how it will continue to attack.

Our own annual get-together of neighbours in our condo will not go ahead this year. We’ll have to continue to wave at each other as we pass on our daily walks and keep exchanging the funny or informative emails that help us all get through the quiet days.

Fruits and vegetables…

You know . . . those things your mother (and daughter-in-law in my case) kept telling you are good for you and should be in your diet in quantity. Well, we might be on the horizon of doing just that. Around here, workers at a few meat-producing facilities across the country have been hit in large numbers with the virus. Some plants have been closed while the situation is being dealt with. Others are threatened. In addition to the tragedy of more infections, there could also be a serious impact on some parts of our food supply.

For us meat-lovers, this could be a real blow. I may to revert to my diet that contains the basic food groups of coffee, beer and chocolate chip cookies.