Staying at home

Cases of COVID-19 first officially started to appear here in the Czech Republic in early March – in fact, it was March 1st, 2020 when the first case was identified at a hospital in Prague. All of the cases were connected with people going for winter break in northern Italy. Schools closed on March 10th – the Czech Republic was one of the first countries to close its schools – and a state of emergency was declared in the country on March 12th.

It’s now April 24th, and our family has been sheltering in place since all this started happening. We’ve gone out very infrequently – occasionally to go for a walk or a run or to go to the empty school to pick up mail (and always in a mask, as is the regulation), but otherwise we’ve been here, hanging out, ordering in, having groceries delivered, and working out to fitness videos in our apartment. The kids’ school has continued online, and Yvonne and I have also been able to work 100% from home.

For the most part it’s gone well. We are very lucky to have been able to live like this for the duration. As I have mentioned before, if by our actions we can prevent the death of a single loved one (and not necessarily our own loved one), then it’s worth it. Not to mention that the risks of this disease are not yet very well understood.

Next week the Czech government is going to start relaxing some of the strict restrictions that it put into place early on – restrictions that definitely helped to avoid major issues with the disease in this country. I hope that things are able to continue to go smoothly (wearing masks will still be a requirement going forward) and that people continue to take things seriously – if not for themselves, then for others.