Well, I am bringing you the news about the pandemic. Honestly, I didn't want to be repetitive, but here we go again. First of all a clarification, this text will be old news by the time of publishing. By then, there will be most likely more cases, so I am going to omit data for the day. To find out specific data, the government has a site where day by day they give statistical reports of the evolution of the pandemic (covid.is). I also want to clarify that this is more of a chronicle about how I have been living it, since the situation has been changing rapidly over the days, while the discussions, the measurements, the problems, the successes and mistakes are basically the same as we already know. However, it is a déjà vu of what we went through in March.
The measurements began to relax in August. It is speculated that these changes were the main cause of this second outbreak (technically the third, but the second was less intense). By then A. was still working from home, and I was working normally. Since September, which marks the back to school period for all levels of education,there were cases reported in some bars in the center of Reykjavik. And suddenly ... boom! we returned to the explosion of cases. The University, of which I plan to write to you about in the following week, considered that the return to classes was going to be mixed, certain classes would be taught via digital platforms, and certain others face-to face, emphasizing that their priority were the first year students so they could have the college experience. Now with the increment in cases, some of which were from the University itself, some dispositions were taken to stop the spread of the virus. Now all classes, at least the ones that A. and I attend, are online.
At A.'s job, it was decided again to go back to remote work. As A. already was working home, given the possibility of this happening, nothing has been really different for us. However, some of his colleagues did continue to work on-location. In my case, we went back to the division of labor, meaning that some days a group of colleagues go, and other days the other half, to avoid that, in case someone is quarantined, work in the office grinds to a complete halt.
In my opinion, merely superficial, without an official figure at hand, the biggest change we have witnessed in this second / third wave, is the use of masks. Although at first people were skeptical to use it, the authorities finally chose to spread the message of its use, trying to reduce infections. However, the outbreaks have continued until the day I write these lines (I would like to clarify that sometimes I start a text at one point and return to it at another and even with my delay in publishing, the situation continues). In the data from the official government website in the face of the crisis, the distribution of infections is concentrated in a greater proportion in young people between 18 and 29 years old, which has been one of the main differences, I believe, of this second / third wave .
In addition to online classes and remote work, many things we had in mind for this second part of the year are on hiatus. The second wave caught us in the middle of a semi-remodeling of the kitchen, of which we thought to change some mosaics that we really do not like. But since we have limited our outings, basically going to the supermarket being the necessary one, there is a half wall, without finishing. As the numbers increase and winter approaches we have held meetings of all kinds virtually. Mexico or any trip outside, even within Iceland, are currently canceled. Chances are it will be a cyber Christmas (although for me it has partly been, for the last three years).
So far, it is just a matter of waiting for things to improve and abide by the measures that we should already know by now.
