• Day 17 - A little summary

    29 marca 2020, Irlandia ⋅ ⛅ 8 °C

    I’m making an effort not to do any work for college at weekends as, when you’re working from home, it would be so easy to end up working seven days a week. So I had a nice lazy Sunday. I cooked a healthy pasta lunch, finding a “birthday cake” flavoured running gel in my cupboard during in the process! I also had a look at the Flight Radar website at one point during the day. It’s crazy to see how few flights are over Ireland and Europe at any given time. Usually you can’t see the countries on the map because there are so many planes flying!

    I thought I’d give a little summary of what has happened so far also, inspired by something similar that I saw on social media this morning. Time is moving at a weirdly slow pace for me right now, so it seems strange that everything listed below has happened in the space of the past three weeks. It feels like a lifetime ago that the schools and colleges were closed!

    Schools and crèches closed on 12th March 2020.

    All pubs and clubs closed on 15th March 2020.

    All St Patricks Day parades were cancelled.

    Lockdown began in Ireland at midnight on 27th March 2020.

    Fuel prices dropped to a record amount (now €1.12/litre).

    Social distancing measures were introduced.

    Tape on the floors at supermarkets helps to keep shoppers 2m (6ft) from each other.

    A limited number of people are allowed inside shops, causing queues outside shop doors.

    Plexiglass screens are placed in front of shop cashiers.

    Non-essential stores and businesses must close.

    Parks and beaches are closed.

    Entire sports seasons are cancelled.

    Concerts, festivals and entertainment events are cancelled.

    Weddings, family celebrations and holidays are all cancelled.

    Funerals are limited to the immediate family of the deceased only.

    Churches are closed.

    Socialising with anyone outside of your home is not permitted.

    There is a shortage of masks, gowns and gloves for our front-line workers. Schools, colleges, hairdressers and others are donating these things to hospitals.

    Panic buying happened and the shops ran out of toilet paper, disinfectants, soap, hand sanitizer and many tinned goods.

    Lots of supermarket shelves are bare.

    Manufacturers, distilleries and other businesses have switched their production lines to make visors, masks and hand sanitiser.

    The government has banned all non essential travel and makes it mandatory to self isolate for 14 days when returning from abroad.

    Fines for breaking the rules have been brought into law.

    Stadiums and recreation facilities open as Covid-19 testing centres.

    There is a daily press conference from the Chief Medical Officer, where the numbers of new cases and deaths are announced.

    The roads are almost completely empty of people and cars.

    Many people are wearing masks and gloves outside.

    Many people have lost their jobs, with the government paying them €350 per week.

    Covid-19 was announced as a global pandemic on 11th March 2020. Nobody knows when it will end!
    Czytaj więcej