40th Day of Quarantine

[aggienaut]

5/1 - 929 active cases in Australia - 14 new in the last 24 hours
5/2 - 899 active cases in Australia - 16 new in the last 24 hours
5/3- 889 active cases in Australia - 18 new in the last 24 hours

   Today marks the 40th day of quarantine, which is of course the traditional length of plague quarantines in early modern Europe, giving rise to the word itself. I believe the word on the street here is that they're going to give it at least two more weeks and see where we're at at that point. In the nearest large to me, Geelong, there have been no new cases for ten days now. Meanwhile in the US: The US just reported its deadliest day for coronavirus patients as states reopen.

   Winter is setting in here. It's been frigid the past few days (in the 40s fahrenheit). More people seem to be out walking then there were before quarantine, albeit everyone is very bundled up against the cold now. The general store in my little village changed hands mid quarantine and now carries a lot of staple groceries, allowing people to avoid going into one of the bigger towns. My tourist-based sales locations were all annihilated early in the pandemic, but it actually caused me to, in desperation, throw out two assumptions that had apparently been holding me back: (1) that new sales locations can only be established by going in in person; and (2) its prohibitively costly to ship honey therefore the immediate area is my only possible market. I emailed literally every single whole or organic food place in Melbourne asking if they were interested in carrying another line of honey, nearly half a dozen wrote back, and as long as I'm delivering to multiple places its cost effective for me to drive down there (it's about two hours from here). As such I think my sales are now better than they were pre-pandemic, and when the tourism-based places finally do re-open I'll be at double where I was before. My visa future is still extremely uncertain though.

   At this point everyone's developed new habits and I think certain things will never go back. No I don't actually mean the meme about "we shouldn't go back to normal because normal was broken." ...yes, it was, but the big things, environmental degradation and lack of health care and income inequality, those blights I don't see changing sadly. But I think there will be more telecommuting, meetings by videoconference, and grocery delivery services.

   Anyway, I think we're on the home stretch here in Australia. It might be awhile yet before they lift quarantine but the worst is over. In the United States I think the worst is still yet to come -- I think all these premature liftings of social isolation are going to lead to a tsunami of new cases.

   And by some miracle Venezuela doesn't seem hard-hit but it could still be coming down the line there so I'm not going to jinx it by declaring they've made it through. So FAR it's been good though.

Comments

[livejournal.livejournal.com]

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[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

I'm giving you all kinds of credits for finding those new markets! I hope the boss sits up and takes notice!

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Thanks I hope so too! The sales numbers are good and moreover the sales trajectory is clearly headed up and up!!

[nick-101.livejournal.com]

Looks like progress is made in Australia. The U.S. would've made progress if the clown-in-chief and their idiotic fanbase would take this pandemic seriously instead of protesting in capital cities in crowds like the idiots they are.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Seriously, I feel like almost _any_ other president would have tprevented a significant percentage of these infections -- they would have taken seriously the january intel briefing, possibly even got the heads up in December from the US health professionals in China which they hadn't dismissed, there'd be un-dismantled pandemic teams.......

[tellshannon815.livejournal.com]

Interesting, I never knew that about the origins of the word quarantine! Ours is due to be reviewed on Thursday and I suspect they're going to extend it at least once more (getting sick of the sight of posts on Facebook about "should we lift quarantine on May 7th?")

We have been told we've passed the peak here. Not surprised about the US since some states seem to have hardly been locked down at all (Georgia, I'm looking at you).

[chocolate-frapp.livejournal.com]

Here in Calif we're still quarantined and going to be for another month (I hope it doesn't have to be longer than that because I'm going crazy).

[newwaytowrite.livejournal.com]

I am not sure what size of shit storm (maybe that was why everyone was over buying toilet paper) still awaits the U.S. I just know it will be massive.

Good show on the honey sales. I would totally buy some of your honey if I lived there. I love honey. I think it comes from my godparents being bee keepers. It also makes me happy that my hometown and where they had their bees has been named after them.

[wpadmirer.livejournal.com]

I'm very glad to hear that things are looking better in Australia. I hope it does continue!

[spaciireth.livejournal.com]

I'm in the ACT and we've got ourselves to zero known active cases, which is very exciting. Restrictions are relaxing a little (e.g. we can have a couple of people over if we want) but I think schools are still going to be closed and that sort of thing, maybe until the end of Term 2.

Yay for finding your new markets for the honey!

We were talking about that this morning, whether there will just be the expectation of "Well, restrictions are lifted now so you're all expected to be back at work full time." I think my immediate team has definitely proved there's a lot we don't actually need to be in the office for, and it sounds like a lot of other places have had the same.

[thismaz.livejournal.com]

Congratulations on finding new markets. Good luck!

And good news too about the situation in Venezuela.

[sallymn.livejournal.com]

I do think we are doing well, when you look overseas it is so frightening....

[zhelana.livejournal.com]

how are you only on day 40? the rest of the world is over 50!

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

I think we're on 40 days since "Phase II" quarantine went into effect, but "Phase 1" was a complete joke, I think it was "no crowds over 500" -- people were even still going to bars (but the maximum occupancy had been cut in half, as if people would all stand really far apart inside, which, of course, they didn't). So yeah I'm not counting that (:

[zhelana.livejournal.com]

that seems really late to have gone into shelter in place. The rest of the world has been on it for 50 days or more.

[picosgemeos.livejournal.com]

Brasil is unfortunately heading towards a worst place than America...