Coronavirus Pandemic

365 days! A whole year of battling the coronavirus! WOW!

When we left the US on 1 March 2020 — for a TransAtlantic Crossing aboard Royal Caribbean’s Allure of the Seas — there were just 75 cases of COVID-19 in the USA.

Ten days later — on 11 March — the WHO declared the coronavirus a pandemic.

On that day, largely unaware of the pandemic declaration and how things were changing all around the world, we were touring Malaga, Spain with mom ... the only port of call on the TransAtlantic Crossing that was taking us from Ft Lauderdale, Florida to Barcelona, Spain. The COVID-19 count in the USA was up to 1,301 ... Spain had 24,670 cases ... Turkey, our final destination, was reporting 3 cases.

We disembarked Allure of the Seas in Barcelona, Spain on 13 March to fly to İzmir, Turkey to take mom home and spend time with our families.

By the time we arrived in İzmir that night, Turkey had shut down its airspace to flights from several countries, including Spain. The next day, the USA shut down its airspace to flights from Europe, allowing entry only to US citizens. The case count in the USA was 2,290 ... in Turkey it was 14 ... Spain, the country we had left on the last flight allowed in to Turkey, was reporting 38,098.

The writing was on the wall. We would have to cancel our plans for the annual family visit and return to the USA. ASAP!

On 19 March, we were on our way back to the USA ... our transit through Barcelona less than 14 days before causing us to have to switch our arrival airport midstream from Houston, Texas to Boston Massachusetts ... with an unanticipated overnight in Boston. The case count in the USA was 14,971 ... Turkey, the country we had just left, was reporting 978.

By the time we arrived home on 20 March, the COVID-19 count in the USA was up to 20,998. The explosion of COVID-19 cases went up and up and up from there! Not just in the USA ... but all over the world.

Today, on the one-year anniversary of the pandemic, the US has had 29,913,941 COVID-19 cases ... and 543,457 deaths ... placing the country in the unenviable #1 position worldwide. (In the time it has taken me to post this footprint, those numbers have undoubtedly changed.)

Did it have to be this way? No. With proper pre-cautions and messaging, our numbers could have been a lot lower. But that’s all water under the bridge. Very sad ... very murky water under the bridge.

There’s nothing we can do to change the past. But we can change the future. Three different vaccine shots are going into the arms of people in the USA. Slowly perhaps. But surely. Similarly, shots are being given in countries around the world as well. Not everywhere, alas. We have a long ways to go still.

What we have to do in the meantime is to practice patience for a while longer and follow the public-health precautions as the vaccination program continues throughout the country and the world. It is in our hands to protect ourselves and others.

The world may never be the same as it was pre-pandemic, but we will reach a new normal. Just a little more patience ... for a little while longer.

P.S. All Coronavirus case numbers are from the Worldometer website ... https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/.

P.P.S. This “trip” began with the first day of our post-trip self-quarantine on 21 March 2020 ... hence the “day tag” only shows Day 356 on this footprint instead of Day 365.Les mer