Covid 19 at home and in the news

[PZ]

So true. The harsh reality is that the Earth is a giant incubator with almost 8 billion potential victims each incubating a potential mutant that might become a highly lethal variant in addition to a possible high level of transmissibility.

We are on borrowed time until this gets under control because this virus obviously mutates at a rate even higher than influenza.

Lets hope this does not go south in a very bad way.

[nex]

Thanks fragger, also glad to hear you're ok mate.
You living in a smallish community makes it so much safer I guess, I live in probably the most popular
Town in the greater Johannesburg Metro with about 340,000 people. Our suburb is ideal for folks to live in
and working in Sandton.

Urban decay in downtown Johannesburg caused many corporate offices to move from the Johannesburg
Central Business District to Sandton in the 1990s. It has become the new financial district of South Africa
and Johannesburg's premier business centre. Much of the financial focus of Johannesburg has shifted from
the Central Business District to Sandton.

With all the hustle and bustle we come across many obnoxious people especially at shopping Malls who don't follow
the rules concerning covid-19, they get verbally abusive when reminded of the rules, so we have to be extremely
cautious when going shopping.   


                                                                                         

[fragger]

Really inspiring that you folks in Australia have a good handle on the problem. 

As you know, I don't have much love for politicians. But I have to say our PM Scott Morrison and his administration have really come through for Aussies in terms of financial support for both employees and employers. It has cost the country dearly in monetary terms, but economies can be rebuilt. People can't. I believe "Scomo" has redeemed himself somewhat after his awful behaviour during the 2019 bushfires. I still don't like him, but I applaud the quick action he took on this and his handling of it.

Still, things here could be better. We too have our share of naysayers, "personal rights" fanatics and conspiracy kooks who refuse to take the pandemic seriously and flout the guidelines. We have even had some anti-mask demonstrations. But most people here seem to understand what needs to be done, and they do it. We have had less than a thousand fatalities in total since it began, and most of those have occurred during the "second wave" which was started by twits in Melbourne who thought the easing of restrictions equated to a complete return to normality and went out in their droves on the first day of reopening to crowd together into shopping malls without masks or social distancing. Thanks, Melbournites.

The "European" mutant COVID strain has now surfaced in Perth, the capital city of Western Australia, which up until now has managed to remain virtually untouched by the virus. The city has had to go into lockdown. The locals aren't happy about it, but to them I say, join the club.

I knew it was too early to start reopening when we did. Another month of lockdown and we might have licked the virus altogether, as New Zealand did, but we dropped the ball. Still, we're in pretty good shape, considering.


@nex, I think you're right - the fact that we're in a small community of about 7,000 people and over 300 kays from the nearest capital city has had a lot to do with our good fortune. We're pretty lucky around here (knocks on the desk). And now that the end-of-year holiday season has passed and all the vacationers have gone home, we can breathe a little easier. That was the time period I was most apprehensive about.

And yeah, reminding people about the rules is a minefield. I haven't had that dubious pleasure - so far - but only because I go out as little as possible and rarely venture from my little community. People are almost all friendly and nice around here, and just about everything I need is here - supermarket, petrol station, post office, bakery, newsagency, excellent medical centre, pharmacy, gymnasium/squash court, tennis club, two cafes, half a dozen restaurants (two Thai, one Chinese, one Italian and two general Aussie "takeaway" food shops), liquor store, two hairdressers, butcher shop, library, several real estate businesses, a well-appointed "lawn bowls" club, car parts and spares, and a computer dealer. There's even a charity store if I want to go el cheapo on buying second-hand clothes (not that I ever do - I'm not that desperate for cheap threads that someone else has worn ) So I rarely have to go to the nearest large town for anything. And that suits me just fine

[Art Blade]

a well-appointed "lawn bowls" club

do you have a "lawn order" station, too?

[fragger]

Hehehe

No, one thing we don't have is a police station (got a fire station, though). But crime is not exactly rampant around here...

Here are our crime statistics for the last 10 years:

Spoiler

Burglaries: 1
...

Cops would die of boredom here.

[Art Blade]

[nex]

We have booze and cigarette restrictions over here, some politicians smile all the way
to the bank because they have cops running illegal supplies for them using cop cars. 

[PZ]