I can't understand people leaving their rubbish behind, and leaving smashed glass on a beach is disgraceful at any time!


Agony, I totally agree, it's hard for businesses just as much as for the general public, and it's always the lowest on the rung of the ladder who has to make the most effort for the smallest return. I am not criticising the poor people who have to implement the new rules, just noticing that personally the ambiguous situation bothers me. I'm a law-abiding citizen, if I have to wear a mask I'll wear one, if I have to sanitize my hands 20 times an hour I'll do it. I would do either of those things anyhow as any intelligent person would, as it protects myself just as much as it protects others.

The thing is that at the moment wearing a mask is only a legal obligation on public transport, or for certain people in the exercise of their professions (medics etc).

Went to an outdoor market this morning where the "bouncer" at the entrance would not let you pass if you weren't wearing a mask. However once in the grounds I noticed many of the stallholders themselves wearing none. Really annoying double standards. As for social distancing, there was nothing like 1m distance between customers, and no attempt either to enforce it.

Re large gatherings...

I work in the medical specialist centre of a large hospital. We received a memo a couple of weeks ago from the strata manager of our medical centre regarding staff training (evacuation procedures) and requiring the compulsory attendance of at least one staff member from each of the businesses that make up the 69 suites in our complex. The training is to be held in the hallway/foyer on the first floor. This is not a joke!

Now the limit for public gatherings in Western Australia is 20. Even if only 20 people attend, there is not enough room in the proposed venue for the required 4 square metres for social distancing under current law. If there are more than 20 in attendance, each person is liable to a personal fine of $1,000 and each business $5,000 for violating public gathering laws.

I sent back an email to the strata manager refusing to attend on medical grounds (because I'm considered at high risk) and politely pointing out the legal violations mentioned above.

Training went ahead as planned and there were more than 20 in attendance.

To date, the strata manager hasn't had the courtesy to reply to my email.

It is unbelievable that anybody could be so stupid in these times when the restrictions are so well-publicised.

The icing on the cake - evacuation training is required by law to be held every 12 months. I have worked here ten years and we have never had such training in that entire time. But I didn't tell her that in my email.

At a guess Carole, I would say that someone has realised that when the dust settles there will be scrutiny of procedures which have, or haven't been followed on the run up to this. This person is trying to watch their back and to be seen to be following the rule book of hospital procedures even if, at this time, they are stupid.

Yes, that was my guess too! Still, there were alternative strategies. They only offered us one date and time. They could have offered, say, three sessions at different times and days, to reduce the number of attendees per session and so that people could pick the session that suited them best.

The other thing was that they only gave us three business days' notice and we were fully booked with phone and Skype consultations. As we are fully booked for the next six months (due to an acute shortage of doctors in our area of medicine), we couldn't shift those appointments and offer people a timely alternative appointment.

And this day, I don't know why we don't have most of our trainings online or through video conferencing... it's so much safer!

Some training needs hands on training, evacuation training being one of them. Rather, the evacuation training I've been to and conducted. None of it was held in a foyer. It always consisted of a tour of what the evacuation routes were, where the emergencies phones were, other emergency supplies, emergency phones, etc. As an extra surprise for the drills I conducted, there was also a trek down staircases in the pitch darkness and then with flickering emergency lighting. I wanted people to be prepared.

It is supposedly phase II where I live and has been for a few days. I've seen no difference from phase I. But then I didn't notice a difference between phase I and total lockdown. I have noticed a few places that are open have increased the hours they are open by a little bit. It is no where near back to the 24hr everything available I'm so used to having but one grocery store is open until 9pm now.

Wearing masks is mandatory when out in public at all times here in New York State. There is a recent law that any store can refuse service and entry to anyone not wearing a mask without repercussions. I've been seeing people ordered out of 7-11s for months if they haven't been wearing a mask. People are refused entry to the grocery stores I go to without a mask. There are hand sanitizer stations every where. But hand sanitizer is only good until you touch something.

Oh wait. After I've typed all that out, I do know of a change with phase II. Our recycling is being picked up again. Yes, we could have simply tossed the recyclables into the garbage all these months. But we've become creatures of habit, well many of us have, and there were huge piles of recyclables to be picked up when that resumed.

Phase one rolled out without too many hiccups here. Our daily numbers are going down even though we're now testing anyone who wants a test. So phase two, which was scheduled for June 19, might come a few days earlier.

I'm seeing fewer masks now, though they are still quite common. Staff, anywhere I've gone, are wearing them, which makes sense according to what we know of the virus, as staff are the ones who are inside the enclosed spaces for long periods of time.

Construction was going on in a limited way all along, but now it's ramping back up. Our season is short, and there is always lots of roadwork to do due to frost damage, so it's essential to get on top of it or our infrastructure collapses!

Well we had all the bad behaviour the other week with the beautiful weather and people going to the beach, this last few days have seen some new cases, just one or two a day. I am hoping that it is people who ignored social distancing, rather than people in care homes etc, but at this stage we haven't been told.

Well, our provincial government has moved us into Phase Two of reopening, as our numbers are pretty good. In this phase, libraries, gyms, and swimming pools can all be opened. However, in my city, the public libraries, the city rec centres (which run public gyms and pools) and the YMCA have all said, essentially, "Thanks very much but no thanks" - they're moving towards reopening but are by no means anywhere near ready.

The libraries are starting with curbside pickup of all the materials that had been on order and just sitting there on the shelves waiting to be claimed. My sister has been bemoaning her luck all through lockdown - she had an entire season of a TV show waiting for her at her local library which she had been planning to pick up the morning they all shut down. Would have been nice to have that to help while away the last couple months.... My daughter is a preschool teacher, and she had fifteen books on the colour red waiting. She's back to work and has half a classroom now, but with the cleaning protocols they have going on these days, she won't be bringing library books into the room anyway.

Me I've resigned myself to not being able to swim for at least a couple more weeks. Some day....

Well, I ended up with emergency hernia surgery. I've been to this er before and here's how the hospital handled everything:

- Nurse is at the front door and asks you the screening questions and takes your temperature. If she doesn't suspect COVID, you go inside the ER with her and she asks some more questions about your symptoms, asks fr ID, etc. I've already been to this ER before so they already had a lot of the needed info on me and just had to confirm some things.

- Went back to the ER as normal. I wore a mask the whole time, the staff wore masks. I asked the nurses and doctor how they've been doing and they said it wasn't bad because of the screening. They did a COVID test on me once they determined I needed surgery.

- Ended up needing surgery. My husband was allowed into the hospital to see me in pre-op and bring me my glasses and a phone charger. They said they check for COVID before going to preop to prevent COVID people from interacting with those who aren't. COVID patients are all on a specific floor that they've apparently set up to not interact with the rest of the hospital (including air handling systems) and they have a specific OR for them as well.

- Everything else being in the hospital seemed the same, although I'd never had surgery before. I didn't wear my mask in my hospital room but everyone else did. When they took me out of my room, I wore one (and the one time I couldn't find my own, they put one of the hospital ones over me - it seemed like they had a good stack of them). Only once did someone take off their mask - it was the woman who was trying to take my blood and who was having an awful time of it.

It was hard being in the hospital without visitors, but was a lot easier because I had my phone with me (I didn't have it when I had my stroke and it was awful). There weren't people going into rooms because there were no visitors allowed so I wasn't worried so much either.

Sorry you needed this, but glad you got what you needed!

And now my husband is sick. Might be COVID, might not be. We got him tested yesterday morning but he's concerned there's a 20% false negative rate, so I told him if he's negative get tested again and that will bring it down to 4%.

We ended up merging COVID bubbles with my in-laws so they can help me!

My daughter is sick. We're almost sure it isn't COVID because she's really prone to this kind of sore throat, but since she's working now, in a daycare, she's taking time off and getting tested today. If she's positive, I'll have to get tested - we've been distancing, but maybe not as perfectly as necessary.

My husband is sick too - we sequestered him up in the master bedroom. He's been sick since Saturday or Sunday and we're hoping we got him up there in time. He hasn't had a fever since Monday night at least and now just as a little cough. He got tested Monday so we're waiting for his test results. If he's positive and I get sick, I think I will end up in the basement which also has a full bathroom. I'm just really worried.

I have only been out of the house in order to attend hospital and GP appointments, since March. The other day I was chatting to my daughter on the phone and she asked about coming to visit - aaagh NO! Her husband works in a hospital in the UK, has to travel by train, her children are back at school and her son travels by bus. She would have to take a train to the airport, whichever airport she could fly from (currently only two but that will change), then she would be isolated inside my home with me - at very high risk from effects of the virus should I catch it! No way would I want her to visit - especially since my house is even more messy than normal!

Here in Germany, things have quieted down some. While we had a spike in infection numbers over the last 10 days ("spike" meaning our daily average for the country went from 300ish to 700ish), those were local outbreaks - the largest of which was at a meat processing plant with some 1300 cases out of 5000 workers. The owner might face being held liable for all the costs including tests, quarantine, etc. so this will likely lead to some more attention being paid to the horrible work conditions.

A few other, smaller, outbreaks were linked to singing in larger groups - religious services and parties - and one was from a low-income high-rise where celebrations had taken place in violation of pretty much all rules.

Except for the affected communities rules are relatively relaxed: 1.50m (5 ft) distancing, masks in all public buildings, gatherings usually limited to 50, with groups above 10 or so needing to keep a record of attendance and contact info (it depends on state). Restaurants, theme parks and most cultural institutions can operate at half capacity with distancing rules, masks and protective barriers, schools operate on a limited basis with a combination of presence and online learning. Most sports events can take place, but without a stadium audience. Theaters are reopening with limited seating as well (usually 20% capacity). Almost all businesses can open with the exception of some spas, night clubs and a few other high risk entertainment types. Protests and other outdoor gatherings are allowed with limited numbers and required distancing.

So bottom line - it's quite livable. The most severe limitation is actually the masks (which tend to get uncomfortable in summer when you need them several hours per day) and the lack of spontaneity - you need date-stamped tickets or reservations for about any venue including sports, entertainment and dining.

Some restricted businesses have become quite creative - as an example, several traveling carnival operators (carnivals are not allowed due to the impossibility to restrict access and enforce distancing) have joined together and built a temporary theme park (with the usual "entry covers all rides" ticket and of course the usual "you need to leave your contact data" rider); I'll be checking that one out next Thursday. Should be fun.

Oh Lady Mc How worrying. Keep us posted as to whats happening. My thoughts are with you.

Oh I forgot to update! My husband tested negative but he stayed in the room for ~9 days before he came out. He hadn't had a fever except for that first day and our county health department says 3 days without a fever and 10 days after first symptoms, so he was probably good to come out.

That is a huge relief I am sure. Good news!

Well I am not a happy bunny.

I have been at home now, not even shopping, since March. I have only left the house for medical appointments. The island reached a point whereby we had no active known cases (about 400 test resuls outstanding) and I was hoping to be able to get out, with caution, now and again.

Our social distancing was reduced to 1 metre, I can live with that, then there was a States (parliament) debate which lasted ten hours on Wednesday and they have now opened our borders to commercial flights and ferries. Now arriving passengers are given two options, have a test there and then, or go into quarantine for 14 days. It is obviously expected that the vast majority will opt for testing, and here comes the stupid bit, results can take up to 72 hours and no one need self-isolate whilst waiting for the results. You couldn't make it up. So people can arrive, not be showing symptoms, get tested then mix with anyone they like, use the buses, spread it about.

Our shops and pubs are open, and restaurants inside and outside. Hairdressers are open, schools are open. Yesterday they announced that we now have one active case, discovered Wednesday, a school cleaner.

Whereas I was hoping to go out since we had no cases and the borders closed, now I am still trapped in the house while we wait to see what will happen. When the pubs opened on Wednesday people were supposed to keep their distance, did they heck as like.

Oh dear, Sue, all that effort gone in a flash in the interests of making a bit of money from the tourists (call me a sceptic)...

In an insular situation it's so much easier to keep control of the thing. A test with a quicker result would be a godsend, and in the meantime no day visitors, and quarantine the "while-waiting-on-results" visitors.

So sorry you can't take advantage of your newly-authorised freedom.

With the first non essential flights arriving today, the television news did some filming. A couple of people arrived and immediately flung their arms around the people meeting them and hugged them. Not even a centimeter space, not alone a metre.

Well look at the US - so many people didn't follow the rules when we were told to stay home and now look - most cases per capita of any country. People are so selfish that they are mad that the government said to wear masks and they are having protests where they are burning donated masks.

Well, well, well. As I said, the first non-essential flights arrived on Friday, today it has just been announced that one of the passengers has tested positive. Now the approach taken by this island government is that if a person has a test they need not isolate whilst waiting for the results, those took about 48 hours this time. So for 48 hours this person has been staying with family, probably been out for a meal, been shopping, or the family they are staying with will have.

It has been predicted that only one person in 7,000 will arrive with covid so I guess that we are fine for the next 6,900 arrivals!

Saturday the first car ferry arrived from the UK since lockdown, yep, it brought another person who tested positive with covid, plus some more test results came back from residents, so from none on Wednesday (declared) to six by Monday.