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COVID-19 Realities Six Months In

covid-19 realities

Alberta has had good leadership and population behavior as we deal with our COVID-19 realities six months in. Looking forward to a vaccine, though.

Six months ago, we received news that Alberta was experiencing community spread. Our premier announced a state of public health emergency on March 17. Local folks began to die from this coronavirus. Activities began to shut down.

Under COVID-19 realities six months in, we have achieved some stability. Most things are open again, including schools. Pretty much everyone is wearing a mask (90%) and going about regular activities with caution. No big indoor gatherings, though. Most of us have had a few folks over for “backyard deck visits”. That will stop soon as winter approaches.

Most of us have formed “cohort bubbles” with family. We spent most of August looking after the grandchildren. All good. But we won’t be mixing much with the grandchildren as they have now returned to school and could put us at risk of asymptomatic spread. Not good.

I still go for several daily walks around the neighborhood. We all give each other a six foot berth.  Some of our friends are more strict, others are more lax. Inside stores we have gotten used to Plexiglas everywhere.

Mostly, I miss indoor visits with friends, especially radio and electronics friends with high-touch workbench activities. Zoom is great but not the same as personal contact. Since most of my friends are older, like me, we have to be careful.

COVID-19 Realities Around the World

How has your community coped? I see lots of pandemic statistics. To me, the most meaningful is deaths per 100,000 population, as shown above. Obviously, New York City was really bad. But, in general, Canada has coped much better than US or UK, with half the death rate. On the other hand, Germany did much better than Canada.

At our provincial level, we have avoided the worst by far. Most of our COVID-19 spread has related to congregate living facilities and meat packing plants. Our death rate is half the rate of Germany, one quarter of Canada’s, and 10% of United States overall. Not as good as most Asian countries, though.

But, as they say, it ain’t over ’til it’s over. Fortunately, we have had decent leadership and good population behavior. After all, we are Canadians, eh?

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