This is what Lockdown Fatigue looks like. When we walked to the car last night around 7:45, the streets were full of people. People sitting together on walls and benches, drinking beer, smoking, talking and laughing. Glory Be! The pandemic is done, lockdown is lifted, immunity is achieved, Covid-19 is not really that bad. I have to say it was just plain strange. Friday evening, and let's all get out there and party, even if we can only party outside. Well, okay, not exactly “partying”, but maybe “let's meet up for a drink, it’s been a while”.
The city had a strange feeling of "normality" about it. The groups of people, the spring air, new leaves, and shops open, though with people only standing at the entrance in most cases, not entering. Except for the bread and confection stores which had gentle queues outside and strict limits on the numbers allowed inside. The cafĂ©-bars were open with people taking drinks away. Not seating was set up, but that didn’t stop anyone, with all the city planter boxes serving as benches.
Had all these people sent the mandatory text messages to receive proper authorisation to be out? I've not seen any code for "meet friends, drink beer, talk". The closest might be a Code 6, used for "personal exercise". We were out on Code 1, "trip to a doctor". All pretty standard if prescriptions need to be renewed.
The seven-day moving average case count in Greece continues to be over 2000, though it does seem to be moving downward. A few days ago, it reached 2652. The highest seven-day moving average reached in November 2020 was 2673. We were less than 1% away from breaching the highest peak of the pandemic, but everyone is out in the streets.
The 9pm curfew also seems to be a bit of a
moving feast. Francoise’s doctor’s appointment was at 8:30, hence our early
departure, to walk to the car and to make sure we had enough time to start it with
the booster battery if necessary (it started right away, good news). That meant
that she finished with the doctor at about 8:50, which put us back on the road
at almost 9pm, the start of the curfew. Nope, the roads at 9pm were full of
traffic, and stores were still open.
The crowds of people across the park from us
were still sitting outside the bar, and everything was good with the world.
Meanwhile, Francoise’s doctor was on the verge of tears with her, talking about how difficult it is treating the Covid-10 patients, and the emotional toll of dealing with trying to save people. The numbers of people coming into hospitals is not quite overwhelming the system yet, but it is putting a real and lasting strain on the healthcare professionals. Greece has drafted private doctors to help, as the public system has reached capacity and has taken over some private clinics to use as overflow wards.
Out in the streets, the age range of most people
was in the 18 – 30 at a guess, but that doesn’t mean there weren’t plenty of
older people, and certainly, there were plenty of children out with their
parents. Mask discipline is better but not stellar. And when groups are
sitting together along a wall, their masks just get in the way of the drinks
and fags and talking. And there seems to be scientific evidence that wearing a mask also impacts your hearing, to judge how people don’t wear their
masks even when just listening.
The doctors are suffering mental trauma from
dealing with the flow of patients, and the potential patients are ignoring the
basics required to keep themselves and their friends out of the hospital. But only the
old die from this. Oh well, I guess a drink is worth the potential for a year
or more of symptoms and a probable lifetime weakened immune system and damaged
lungs, to name just a couple of possibilities.
The "good news" from the doctor was that this
peak does not seem to have the same level of deaths (yet). This may be because therapeutic
responses are better or that cases are being identified earlier through
testing and, therefore, easier to treat. Or it could be because the death rate
trails the new case rate by two weeks. We will not know for a couple of weeks. But
we are only looking at the chart through today, and it doesn’t look too bad. Maybe
it has peaked.
The charts are there. The data is there. And the history is there.
When I shift the deaths backwards by two weeks or so to overlay the previous peaks in cases and deaths, the picture does not look very
appealing for the next couple of weeks. The total cases may have peaked (I
certainly hope, but again it is too soon to say that), but deaths certainly will
not have peaked for this wave. Again, all that can be said that we will wait
and see and hope that the numbers come down.
But Greece is not vaccinating people quickly
enough. Most of the over-80s have been vaccinated, and the 60+ cadre is in
process. But the total percentage of the population that has had its first dose
is still around 10%. There will need to be a significant increase in the pace
to be able to really open the country.
This is a great blog Danny! Keep it coming!
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