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Now that my country is on lockdown... this viral pandemic is having a noticeable impact upon almost all my daily activities.

Hospital appointments are cancelled, supermarkets left with no groceries and barely any other stock, children out of school, bored and nervous at home, asking questions I can hardly answer.

I am lucky to have this RPR site to keep me safe indoors and my time occupied with friendly company.

At present I am reading role-played stories to the children, as if they were unique story books, to keep their minds off the worries and engaged in the ongoing adventures.

Is this outbreak affecting you guys as well?
Mipps

I am out near Seattle, where the first deaths have occured in the US. So far my grocery stores haven't been 'empty' but I am getting nervous about that as they have been a lot busier.

The state has banned any events over 250 people in a handful of counties that surround me. A grocery store that was opening in a few weeks has postponed their grand opening because of the outbreak.
I think I heard schools will be closed too.

I have been mostly hermity (which is my normal), and im a stay at home military spouse; so I think I am seeing less of the effects. So far the bases are still open and so I still have access to them foods and what not even if the local grocery stores run out.


Interesting enough, all the 'preparation survival kits' you can get online with emergency food and water supplies + medical are ALL sold out. Never in my life have I seen them sold out. I was thinking about getting one incase things over here fall into panic and chaos. I am waiting for it.

However, I am not very worried about the flu itself. I have a pretty good immune system. That and I wash my hands allll the time xD
MasterWinter

I'm in GA in the USA right now. The section of GA I'm in, hasn't gone that crazy yet. But finding toilet paper is a disaster from what I heard. No idea about how food is, as sadly since I don't have a driver's license to drive, we have to wait till the weekend when my grandpa can drive us.

The hospice nurse who came to check my gran said: I bought canned goods, jerky, soda, Gatorade, stuff that would last, no water cause they say it's contaminated.

I dread going to the store this weekend.

Especially since the nurse said someone in a town over near us, too a wine bottle and cracked it on a woman's head to get the milk she had in her hands. The ambulance came and the woman's whole head was wrapped in gauze.

The nurse doesn't believe it will be that bad here, where I am, yet. But when grocery shopping needs to be done, I'm taking a fuffin walking stick with me to put me at ease. Especially since most of the time my 14 year old cousin is with us. However. Most of the time she doesn't stay with grandpa and I, she's always wandering around the store. What the heck would she do, if it got bad in a store?

Also no one can find handsanitizer anymore.

And if my cousins school gets closed, which I understand why, I'm going to go bat shit crazy worse than usual. Why? In short: 14 year old drama queen, who thinks because I'm not as old as our grandparents, can annoy the living day lights out of me. I'm going to need to restock on pain killers, and hope they last with the future headaches I will have.
Both my partner and I are sent home from work, with me working from home and him being super bored. The country is on lock-down here as well, with people hoarding supplies like there's no tomorrow despite the government's words specifically about not doing this.
I'm normally not nervous about things like this, but I'm kind of affected by the current mood of my country and local area. Both me and some of my family members are in the high risk of actually dying from this virus, so it's kind of a little unnerving, especially because I'm worried about my family members. All activities, plans and gym sessions have been cancelled, my partner's family won't see him because he was teaching students who'd been to the high risk areas before the lock-down.

On the bright side, my kitten is really enjoying all of the attention he's currently getting and at least people are not hoarding cake.
There is no food shortage in my country, no shops are closed, though people are panicked. Almost every family supplies food so you don't have to go shopping often. Schools and universities are already closed. The Minister of Education tells us that studies will resume as usual from March 23. Before that, online content will be explained. Some other institutions are also preparing to move to online work.

Number of infected individuals has increased to 24. Hope people will be cured soon so they can go back to their families. For now they remain in quarantine.

I'm not ask scared as many others, but the situation still makes me feel bad and worried. Plus, I've been locked at home more than a month and i hate that i can't go out as often as before. Because of online lectures, I'll have to stay at home until things get better and we go back to usual way of studying.
Novus

I live in Springfield, and the second confirmed case in Missouri was announced by our governer to be a young woman living here who just returned from a trip to Austria. So naturally, the local public is in a disarray, and I kid you not, literally every roll of toilet paper has disappeared off of the store shelves. At Sam's Club, they had their Members Mark brand, but you had to wait in line 2+ hours to get a ration of two packs per household.

Who knew I would live in a time when they'd ration toilet paper

Schools have shut down and/or extended Spring Breaks, businesses are closing and/or sending their employees home to work, and honestly, it's a state of panic here. There are also a great number of us in this city that just roll our eyes, shake our heads and wash the crap out of our hands. Being cautious is wise, but crossing the line into hysteria over a single, controlled case of COVID-19 is unhealthy.
I actually work in a restaurant associated with, but not inside, a major theme park. I just found out, ON FACEBOOK, that the theme park will be closing for the next two weeks. (No I don't work at Disneyland. There's more than one theme park in the world.) But it said that the hotel would remain open. It didn't say anything about the marketplace shops that my restaurant is a part of just outside the entrance to the park though.

Well, today it's cold and rainy and the restaurant is slow, so they called and told me not to bother coming in. Canceled my shift. That's fine. Understandable. It happens. But the manager made it sound as if that's all he had to say, so before he hung up, I asked him about the closure. He honestly didn't know if we would be working for the next two weeks or not. He recommended calling back later today or tomorrow. Like...what?!

And yes, Disneyland is closed. The church my friend goes to is closed and doing all their worship online now. Universities are closing and I'm just sitting here looking at all these businesses kicking their employees to the curb because of the panic around this virus, wondering how half these people are going to make rent at the end of the month because of this whole debacle. It's a mess.
WARNING:
this user is about to expel weeks of pent-up anger in the form of a rant/vent due to how poorly her country is handling the virus. The user does not mean any offence to those who are personally affected by the virus, but viewer discretion is advised.


I live in the UK. To date, we've had 798 cases of people being infected with the virus and 11 deaths. Now, my heart does go out to the families and friends of those who have lost loved ones, of course, not just here but around the globe. But all the media is doing is adding more and more fear to those who do not really know much about this virus in the first place and it makes me sick. People are panic-buying because they can't be bothered to educate themselves about this virus and think things through properly. My nan is suffering with stage 5 kidney failure, but she can't buy simple pain medication because all the shops have been cleared out of it, as well as hand sanitizer, disinfectant, loo rolls and pasta. I just wish people would stop acting so impulsively, calm down and think for a moment. Let me give you some quick statistics;

Mentions of the Coronavirus have reached 1.1 billion. To put this in perspective, the Ebola outbreak a few years back received 11.1 million. The recent news that two people have been cured of HIV (something we should be celebrating by the way) has been overshadowed by this virus and the negativity surrounding it, and the news has only had 40 million mentions in the media, which pales compared to the Coronavirus.

The number of average deaths per day for the Coronavirus (56) is annihilated by Tuberculosis (3,014) but no one is talking about that. When was the last time you heard someone mention the latter? Only 4.7% of people who contract the Coronavirus will receive a 'critical' condition where they have to go under intensive care. A good 80.9% of people will have mild symptoms similar to flu and can stay at home.

Acording to WHO, of the 80,000 cases in China more than 58,600 have recovered and been discharged which is more than 73%. Furthermore, Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove of the World Health Organisation stated that "80% of the people who are infected with this will recover, and that's an important message." The chances of you getting infected to a severe or critical condition rely heavily on various conditions being met. For example, those 80 years and over are most at risk, while people aged 60 and below have less than a 5% chance of contracting the virus to an extreme state. Those with underlying health issues are more vulnerable to the coronavirus, but it only increases their chance of being hospitalised by about 10%. Even gender can flip the odds, with men being slightly more likely to contract it than women.

Now this information - which I obtained through validated sources - took me 15-20 minutes to find and read through. How hard would it be for the rest of the planet to do the same? If we stopped letting the media restrict our knowledge and oppress us with fear, we'd be much better at handling the situation in terms of mere common sense. You do not need to buy 80 rolls of toilet paper! Shop like you usually would, and that way everyone will have access to hand sanitiser and disinfectant, which will, in turn, slow the spread of the virus! It's sad that in 2020, we are having to educate people on how to wash their hands, that people are having their shopping stolen right in broad daylight! I guess it's too much to ask the people of this day and age to use their common sense. This is why I'm not having children, they'll be surrounded by idiots.

Vent Over.
It definitely has taken a bit of the news space, but I keep myself educated well and research into it a bit. If you're in need of stories for your kiddos, I'm willing to send some stuff from my main timeline for my guys.
I have a high risk (over 10%, probably more) of dying from the virus so I ended up buying enough food and stuff to be able to stay home for the next month or two. I did my panic shopping during the past 4 weeks and ended up finishing it a week ago. Now, it turns out that I’m getting in a bad mood from being at home (I work from home as well), so I’ve just bought some flowering plants and cheery essential oils, but that’s it - I’m going to go out for walks (while staying several meters away from others), but no more shopping in person.

This is one of the biggest risks that we have faced in the past few decades, so I’m VERY VERY glad for all the media coverage and the steps my government is taking. I might live to see summer and so might my family (also high risk), so yay!

It’s important to note that carriers can take up to weeks to actualy show signs of the illness, that it’s very contagious and that it’s a multiplicative process. The number of seriously ill can grow at an incredible rate, and if the healthcare system is overwhelmed people will start dying from treatable things. Just look at Italy right now, and it’s not at its worst yet.

Anyway, everyone is responsible for their own decisionmaking and has their own opinions. I’m not looking to start a discussion of this as it would likely grow into a flame war, so I’m not going to watch this topic or post further replies. But I can’t not mention that comparing it to other, “normal” illnesses, does not take into account some very important facts that we now know.

Edited / update 1: So apparently people keep hanging out with one another, this is extremely bad news. And they’re doing it outside in groups, which makes it difficult to go for a safe walk (one without coming too close to someone else - ideally 3 meters should be kept between people if they are sneezing, and about 1,5 m under normal circumstances). There are crowds in shops but due to lack of face masks for even doctors, nobody is wearing them because almost nobody has them.

The delivery services have started being overwhelmed. Some online stores are closing down temporarily due to high numbers of orders and low supplies. I imagine delivery services will become very strained very soon.

Edit / update 2: It turns out that my flatmate doesn’t wash her hands before handling groceries and touching a lot of things in the flat when coming from the outside from the store where she was among lots of mask-less people. Then she still doesn’t wash her hands properly but sort of rinses them for three seconds. She insists on going out to shop every day. This is knowing that there is a highly contageous disease about that could easily kill me. On top of my other issues, I very recently recovered from a serious case of flu. Therefore, I’m pretty much screwed.

OTOH, no need to worry about only having stocked enough food to last a month’s quarantine, I guess?
We've got 12~ cases in our state but it's spreading a lot faster then we'd like it to. So, our school got canceled until april 3rd.
In the state where me and my family lives in there are only 33 Cases of coronavrius but it's lucky on the east side of the state and nobody die thankfully .

Just right now my country President just declared a National Emergency .

My school was already thinking about closing before this news thanks to the Outbreak .

Thanks fully me and my mom are staying Claim because having anixty can weaken your immune system.
In the state I'm in, there have only been around 6 confirmed cases atm, but they've still canceled school for two weeks. Still doing a cyberschool-like program, though.
I'm a little miffed because the city I currently live in (which is in Ontario, Canada) has gone into full lockdown despite not having any COVID-19 outbreaks anywhere near it. The college and university have both called off classes for the rest of the semester, so I don't know what that means for my postgrad. The exhibition we've spent all year developing is dead in the cradle. Our placements in the field are also suspended. Since I was going to be relocating to another province for mine, I already put down a deposit on a rental. Now that's moot and I have nowhere to live once my current lease is up.

It's a fine mess.
Schools and large events in my state (Michigan) are closing/canceling for several weeks. Some of my friends jobs are doing practice quarantines.

I am not too worried for myself. I am a hermit mostly. I leave the house once a week usually at most.

I'm a little more worried for my older dad.

I'm trying not to think about it too much and avoiding the news because I already have anxiety, hyperfocusing will deteriorate my mental health. I have enough stress right now.

My main thing is that I don't have hot water to wash my hands or shower atm. Water heater has been broken for a week. But hopefully that will be replaced this weekend.

The hard part will be doing my normal grocery shopping tomorrow.

I wish everyone peace and safety. If anyone needs a distraction feel free to message me. I've been told I'm pretty good at that. ❤
It's gonna be a wild ride on this rock for a while.

If anyone is interested, Johns Hopkins has a live tracker here:

https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6

And the situation report from today from the WHO:

https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/situation-reports/20200313-sitrep-53-covid-19.pdf?sfvrsn=adb3f72_2

Today at work we received a mandate where we have to stand six feet away from anyone, and to not congregate in the office. So I kept my tape measure at my desk and made sure to measure the distance between a few of my coworkers when they approached me. I hope nobody at work secretly hates me.
Before I went home yesterday, my work sent out an email stating that they’re considering work from home options…

…and that, in the meantime, there’s going to be a handshake ban.

Nice.

Now, where I work, we see hundreds and hundreds of employees cycling through the floor, sharing computers and workstations, coughing and sneezing on each other, nastifying keyboards and mice with limited access to sanitization…all the while being within very close proximity of each other. We have to move through densely packed areas where people are coughing and sneezing and what have you. Diseases tear through this place insanely fast, and taking time off for sickness is heavily, huuuugely discouraged.

You can imagine that a handshake ban isn’t, uh…gonna do much. I fully expect the virus to hit us, and hit us hard, because people will come in regardless of whether they’re sick or not and it's just...unsanitary as heck in here.

At the very least we’ve seen a marked drop in calls coming in over the past few days. When normally we’re getting avalanched with requests, with no gap in between, suddenly there’s like…3-5 minutes between each call.

It’s much uglier in other industries, especially in restaurants, hotels, and anything tourism-reliant. Leisure, as well. But…well! My job seems like it’s very secure despite the fact that I work in a giant petri dish.

I just hope the best for everyone. It’s liable to get really bad for a lot of people.
This is interesting, reading these responses. *Hugs* and *peace* to the OP. I'm in north Texas, and the reaction is about like what Mipps described is happening in Seattle. No gatherings of 250 or more people, some large school districts extending Spring Break, people rushing the grocery store, and no toilet paper in Walmart. Also, I noticed, no rubbing alcohol.

I'm a little mystified that toilet paper is such a focus of people during this pandemic. *raises eyebrow and gives the public a bizarre look* I don't get it. But...we do what we do. To me it seems like the world is overreacting but I was wrong about schools not closing, so I was wrong about this panic all being media hype. But I do feel for the person with the grandparent who can't get pain meds. And for the person who's graduate school project was canceled. And all the others. I do think some of the panic-mongering is overdone by the media, and I hope we can all stay centered and grounded in family, friends, and ourselves. Hope this is over quickly. <3
Mipps

Be careful about links that show "maps of the coronavirus"

There is a warning that there is a website out there giving people computer virus's on one of these links that's apparently very devastating.

A virus over a virus. >.>
wednesday, the prime minister announced we were going on lockdown. that means all schooling has to be virtual, most people are sent home from their jobs and are working from home if they can do so, we shouldn’t be in gatherings with more than 100 people and all clubs, bars and such are closed. retired doctors and nurses are returning to work to help out because there are so many people who need their help. all surgery that isn’t urgent is cancelled so they can make room and time to treat people with the virus

the prime minister said in her two hour long speech that people shouldn’t start hoarding things but if everybody continues as normal, there will be enough of everything for everybody; as usual. but people went out to hoard and now stores are empty of bread, meat, toilet paper and yeast. i understand wanting to be prepared but there’s a difference between getting a few extra things and hoarding; which makes things less accessible to the people who need it the most (people who are disabled, low-income, etc)

from noon today, all borders will be closed so people can’t travel to and from here unless they have a permit that states it’s necessary for them to get into the country, fx health care workers and such

it’s a very odd situation and things just flipped from one second to another. i’m trying my best to stay safe and not leave the house but it’s actually a bit scary

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