Coronavirus Journal
Sunday 5th April
I’ve been struggling to find the time to write this, partly because I am genuinely busy and partly because when I do get downtime the last thing I want to think about is Coronavirus. So this one will be a little bit lazy, as I asked various colleagues from work to share photos from their areas.
But before I get to that, some good news. I had previously mentioned that my Dad’s Aunt had died of Coronavirus. Well it seemed like the reports of her death had been greatly exaggerated. She is in the hospital, does have Coronavirus, and is very much a member of the at-risk group. Yet she is still alive and has been putting up a good fight, and I am told she is improving.
This highlights in many ways just how chaotic this situation is. Coronavirus patients are (as I understand it) not generally allowed visitors, and the hospitals are overloaded, so it’s not like you can just phone them. Unless they have their own phone with them and are able to use it, you’re stuck relying on the grapevine. In this case one person misunderstood, which obviously got around quickly enough until one person got 2 bits of conflicting information and said “hold on, are you sure she’s died?”. It’s nice, at least, to be able to phone people up and tell them some good news so soon after giving them bad news. She remains in hospital and is not out of the woods yet, so I hope I’m not writing another update to this soon.
In bad news, today’s figures for Scotland are 3706 confirmed cases and 220 deaths. We are now up to 931 cases in Glasgow. It seems like a huge jump from the previous article I wrote, but even then it probably doesn’t reflect the whole picture; reporting drops Sat-Mon then jumps again on Tuesday. One report I read suggested that this was because some labs are closed at the weekends, and the tests they process on Monday aren’t counted until Tuesday’s press release. I don’t have a solid source for that but I would not be impressed if that was the case; I’m sure there are ways to keep these labs open 7 days a week.
Rather than digging into the considerable political news, I will stay focussed on Glasgow with some photos provided my colleagues. It’s worth saying that these photos are taken by people going to the shops or out getting their exercise, not people who are ignoring the social distancing rules or going out just to get these photos.
That’s all for now. I think think this lockdown is about to get put to the test, as the weather is improving and people are starting to flout the rules. It’s a good thing the fines are there as a tool to combat this, but I’m also cynical about the potential for abuse here. I’m hoping that the next time I sit down to write it will be with good news.