Coronavirus around the world.

[Donald]

Friends,  I anticipate a great deal of ship in bottle building over these next few months. I fortunately retired in January from, of all things, respiratory therapy. I used to run life support machines daily. I have 3 kids in my house, 16 yrs, 20 yrs, and 23 yrs. I moved them upstairs today and am isolating myself downstairs for potentially, a long haul from them. The kids will get it and be OK., they have to come and go some. I will eventually get it and probably be O.K. but I don't want to be in the initial group. I'm 60 years old, so still young but this is scary from the standpoint of lack of resources, i.e. ventilators and staff.                                                   Wondering how you folks around the globe are coping? Advice from those in hot spots? At any rate please be careful and don't underestimate this bug.                                                                          On a different note, I am beginning work on a new build I hope to log here. The Mayflower actually. I know there are kit's out there for this ship, but this will be scratch. More on that soon.

[Bernard Kelly]

I live in the Canary Islands and at present we are on lockdown. I have not been out since Sunday 15 March. And I have got cabin fever already. We are only allowed out one at a time to go to the supermarket, doctor, chemist and dentist. I am trying to make a Bluenose model but at the moment I am waiting for cataract surgery and finding it very difficult, Even typing this is tough. I suppose my surgery will now be postponed until a later date.

Stay safe my friends and look after yourselves and your families.

Best wishes to you all.

Bernard

[Donald]

3 hours ago, Bernard Kelly said:

I live in the Canary Islands and at present we are on lockdown. I have not been out since Sunday 15 March. And I have got cabin fever already. We are only allowed out one at a time to go to the supermarket, doctor, chemist and dentist. I am trying to make a Bluenose model but at the moment I am waiting for cataract surgery and finding it very difficult, Even typing this is tough. I suppose my surgery will now be postponed until a later date.

Stay safe my friends and look after yourselves and your families.

Best wishes to you all.

Bernard

Best of luck to you Bernard. Are there many cases there? If so, I imagine they will postpone your surgery.  You may not want to be near that environment for a while anyway. 

[Bernard Kelly]

Hi Spanky

There are 148 confirmed cases in the Canary Islands  at present, of which two people have unfortunately died. Hopefully this lockdown will be worth it. Yes I agree, hospital is an environment that I would prefer to avoid at this moment.

[MickyK]

Hi All,

I'm down-under, and it's happening here as well.

There seem to be "pockets" of contagion around Sydney, and most of them seem to have been instigated by people that had traveled into Aust from overseas.

Now, like everywhere, there are travel bans in place, much tighter screening at airports, no large gatherings of people, most of our major sporting events either behind closed doors, or cancelled for the foreseeable future.

The 3 deaths, so far, have been the elderly, living in nursing homes.

My particular "self-isolation" is because I don't have much of a social life!!

You may have seen on the TV news about our shortage of toilet paper, no-one has been able to explain "why toilet paper", I can under stand non-perishable food stuffs etc.

So I hope everybody stays well, and it is a very good excuse to get on with your hobbies.

Cheers

Mick

 

[Shipbuilder]

There are a lot of positive things about it as well.   The death rate is very low.     The air in China is already far cleaner than it has been for years, and their health is increasing rapidly.   Air travel has been cut by 75% and  that has taken a consdiearble amount of pollution out of the atmosphere.   Same with automobiles - cities with  streets practically devoid of petrol fumes.    There will be fewer traffic accidents.     This may terrify some, but it is of tremendous benefit to the envoirnment.     I am in the "higher risk" category, (age 76) but I am more than happy to see all thse polluting activities severely curtailed.     I am confident that the removal of pollution on a big scale will very quickly bring about recovery of the world's health (after all, it is respiratory)  - and  then they can all go back to polluting again!😟    

Bob

 

[Bernard Kelly]

We just heard yesterday that my granddaughter has been confirmed as having covid 19. By the time she was diagnosed she was about four days in. She says it is not too bad, but then she is only 24. Thankfully she is on the downward slope and is feeling better all the time.  She is at university in Cambridge and is now isolated along with her four housemates who are now being monitored for the virus. 

[DSiemens]

I'm sorry I haven't been around much its been crazyness around here.  I work for a hospital system so it's been a little wild. I work in taxes so it's less crazy for me than at our sites but I have had to move my office to home. They've set up a full task Covid19 force in the office that looks like a war room.  Lots of people on computers, some one always upfront taking information and giving out orders and the token pacing person in the back of the room.  If it weren't so serious it would be comical.  I guess we half to chuckle at some things to keep from going a little nuts.  I am proud to see my organization is taking things very seriously.  I do worry about all of you out there and my friends in the Rocky Mountain Shipwrights.  I'm young enough I'll be fine but we have a lot of older members.  Be careful out there and try to be safe.     

[Chasseur]

For me, I am part of an Incident Management Team in our Emergency Operations Center. We have declared a State of Emergency. Our EOC is at level 3, 4 is the highest you can go. We are in a partial lock-down here in Alberta Canada. Most businesses are closed with exception to Food Stores, Pharmacies, Veterinarians, Hardware Stores for emergency repairs and of course Medical Centers and Hospitals. You can still get takeout food at drive through, however you are not allowed inside any restaurants, bars, barbershops et al.

Daniel- I feel for you as the USA has been hit hard especially New York, California, Florida, Washington, and I heard a cluster has developed in New-Orleans. Our Health Care officials have one vital statement: Stay Inside! I am confident we will get through this as long as people practice social distancing when out and perfect hygiene. I can't even image what the people are going through in China, Spain, France, UK and Italy?

 

Chass

[exwafoo]

I live in the UK North West and although fit as a fiddle, because of certain birthdays being passed, I am classed as vulnerably, so have to be extra careful. Most people seem to be doing as they have been told and staying in and isolating, but there are the normal entitled 'nobody tells me what to do' idiots who who want their 15 mins, and would much rather believe the social media disinformation. Basically, in this age it seems our Govt cannot legislate for stupid. There are even lawyers (1) trying to put a case together to state that lockdown is illegal and take the Govt to court over it.  

I did the grocery shop last week and panic buying had hit. The last time I saw shelves as empty was when the ship I was in visited Maputo, capital of Mozambique, a Marxist state in '86. There was nothing. Black market was rife. However this week the shelves were 90% normal, and there are now reports of unopened food past the 'best by date' being binned. Again social media hype caused the panic.

It seems to be hitting in the denser populated areas, as you would expect. The NHS is doing a superb job, and with the back up of the volunteers and the Forces Medics, plus emergency hospitals, we should see it through. Its just that all the extra kit manufacture and logistics takes a finite time to kick in. Unfortunately, as ever, the media reporters (2) would much rather sensationalise the bits of bad instead of the lots of good. (There's two occupations numbered above  that any vaccine should be trialled on first in case it doesn't work)

Anyway all, stay inside,and stay safe,

All the best

Alan