We are more than halfway through the national 21-day lockdown, and life for most of us has settled into a kind of slow rhythm. Not for health workers of course, who are out there in the thick of it.
I think everyone feels for them, in particular for the medics in really stricken places like Italy where 96 doctors have already died of the coronavirus. It is horrible seeing their exhausted faces on TV, desperate but resigned to carrying on, because what else can they do? I can see why Italians started coming out onto their balconies at night to acknowledge their healthcare workers by clapping – clapping that echoed not only around their cities but around the world, picked up in Spain, the UK and probably in your neighbourhood in South Africa as well. We do it at 8pm in Kalk Bay. It is amazing how uplifting it is, seeing all these people emerge onto stoeps and pavements – a safe distance apart – smiling, cheering and clapping. It gives us a sense that we are all in this together. Three nights a week we have music too – only three songs. One of the neighbours turned nine on Monday, so our street’s WhatsApp group said she could choose that night’s music. She later said it was “the best birthday ever because the neighbours danced in the street!” (Far apart of course.) She will have a tale to tell her kids one day. One neighbour wanted to send the birthday girl two balloons, so tied them to her dog’s collar and told him to take it to her. But he had other plans for this newfound freedom and stopped to lift his leg at the nearest car, where upon one balloon dropped to the road and burst. Much mirth. He shot off in the opposite direction, nose on the ground, delighting in reading the latest street smells. Like a doggie WhatsApp. But it is a serious business, isn’t it. Nearly 80 000 dead as I write this, and 1.4 million reported cases. The European death toll that had started to decrease, is increasing again, while 11 000 are dead in the USA. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is in ICU and US president Trump, well what can one say? Perhaps quote CNN which said that Trump “hi-jacks” the Covid-19 press conferences to try to “rewrite the history of his reprehensible response to the virus”, and uses them as a re-election platform to “lie, defeat, bully and cover up” his earlier dismissal of the coronavirus. Initially Trump called it a “hoax”. I am sure you all get a lot of “funnies” on social media. One of the best I’ve seen is a shot of Trump standing with masking tape over his mouth. In front is White House health advisor Dr Anthony Fauci. The caption reads: “Dr Fauci announces a new mask that will save thousands of lives.” I love it. Seen a disturbing video of central Knysna, with several groups of people on the streets close together and not even a homemade mask in sight. Don’t they get it? Or don’t they really care?
