Self isolation, social distancing, sheltering in place, whatever else you call it

[dr. b 486]

Everybody's doing it (I think?) so let's all post more maybe?

 

What's the situation like where you live? Business as usual? Everything shutdown? Somewhere in between?

 

What are you doing to keep from getting too bored / going crazy?

 

etc.

[MT 899]

My whole state is in a "stay at home" order, and all non-essential businesses are closed. Lucky for me (or unlucky depending on how you look at it) my job is one of the "essential" ones, so i'm still out every day, living life like normal. All restaurants are only allowed to do takeout, which is kind of interesting. 

 

Honestly my life hasn't changed all that much, so it's not really affecting me all that much. Outside of washing my hands way more often and being a little more careful about what I touch around home, that's really all i've needed to do differently.

[Mera'din 306]

Pretty much same here. The state isn't in total shutdown, but schools are closed and non-essential businesses have restrictions (bars, gyms, and "public gathering" places/events are closed, restaurants are drive thru/delivery/take out only, etc. ). Even if we do shut down completely though, my job is one of the listed essential ones so I'll be working regardless of how bad it gets unless I get sick.

[Eizan 126]

I work for Kroger...so I'll be working regardless. Actually  I've been working for the last 10 days straight and I may get off Saturday? Or possibly working 7 days again, who knows. It looks like panic shopping is slowing slightly, but still lots of customers showing up. 

 

Mostly everything is restricted, no school and thankfully no Masters Tournament (I live in Augusta, GA). Or at least for now. 

[dr. b 486]

I feel like it could be any day now where we get a call for all non-essential business to shutdown in Ontario, but I guess it's entirely depending on the rate of new cases. If we can kinda/sorta keep living like normal while also limiting community spread then maybe it won't come to a shutdown. But they've already closed schools for an extra two weeks after the March Break week last week, and I won't be surprised if we soon find out it's not just a two week closure. Quite a few stores have already voluntarily closed indefinitely. Restaurants cannot accept dine in patrons, though there is still drive thru and delivery. Supermarkets and liquor/beer stores are getting more strict about social distancing measures.

 

I'm working from home and will continue to do so for as long as possible, even if my family drives me nuts half the time.

[webhead 518]

Fortunately I can work from home so I'm good for work.

 

All the restaurants are doing curb side and stuff.  Lots of stuff closing of things.  I'm mostly just not going anywhere except to get food.

[Galeigh 280]

Since my bosses decided to hide the fact that we had been exposed to the virus I am in self-imposed Isolation.

[dr. b 486]

That's no fun. No symptoms so far though?

 

I thought Spring was finally here for good, but we woke up to snow this morning. Not much accumulation, maybe two inches, but big fluffy snowflakes are still coming down. It's a nice scene to see out the window.

[Galeigh 280]

Nothing yet, but it's only been a few days. I was super cautious at work so I SHOULD be ok, but I am not risking those kids.

[dr. b 486]

Yeah, no matter how cautious you were, self-isolation is the right thing to do once you know you've been exposed.

 

 

36 minutes ago, little birdy said:

I thought Spring was finally here for good, but we woke up to snow this morning. Not much accumulation, maybe two inches, but big fluffy snowflakes are still coming down. It's a nice scene to see out the window.

 

Getting heavier now

[h2ojunkie 87]

Work is still happening, hospital construction site. We cut back to 1 person on site managing the contractors. I'll be working from home as much as possible and taking some stress away from my wife who works from home normally while both of the kids are home.

[dr. b 486]

The province of Ontario has just announced that the deadline is end-of-day tomorrow for all non-essential business and services to close, so I guess I'm getting a temporary layoff. I've never had to go on EI before, so this will be a new experience for me. There will be so many people applying, it's going to be a shitshow.

[Tassifox 413]

Grocery worker soo......yea.... The running joke is Panic at the Safeway. If I haven't been at work I've been exhausted at home. We have  plexi glass "sneeze guards" at the registers, having baggers stationed at each entrance wiping down handles on hand baskets and carts as customers come in or leave, have blue tape on the floor all over to mark the six foot rule
WA finally called the Stay at Home Order.

[h2ojunkie 87]

 

[dr. b 486]

22 hours ago, little birdy said:

The province of Ontario has just announced that the deadline is end-of-day tomorrow for all non-essential business and services to close, so I guess I'm getting a temporary layoff. I've never had to go on EI before, so this will be a new experience for me. There will be so many people applying, it's going to be a shitshow.

 

False alarm, we are an essential business and I'm not getting laid off (yet)

[Mera'din 306]

They've extended our school closure at the very least it looks like. March 30th was originally going to be the last day and they didn't prep any schoolwork for anyone, but now they sent out a plan for 'distance learning' and we have to go pick up a packet tomorrow or Thurs. for my 7 year old. Rumors have been running about various people who work in the energy and agriculture businesses here in MN getting travel vouchers just in case we go into full lockdown. Our cases have been jumping pretty steadily (only like 5 or so nearby and none in our county yet though), but I'm hoping it doesn't hit that point outside of the twin cities.

[Tassifox 413]

[Galeigh 280]

My companies solution: condense all the kids in a single building. 

 

The same building that got exposed. Jesus fucking christ. 

[webhead 518]

You had me at "condense all the kids in a single building" since you know...don't...do...that...

[dr. b 486]

10 hours ago, Galeigh said:

My companies solution: condense all the kids in a single building. 

 

The same building that got exposed. Jesus fucking christ. 

 

What kind of business do you work at? School? Daycare? I figured all of those places were closed everywhere by now. 

[h2ojunkie 87]

Daycare's don't technically fall under the same heading as schools. One of the reasons to keep them open is for the people that still have to work at essential businesses. We took our son out of daycare, so at least we will save like $240/week on that. 

[Galeigh 280]

Daycare. Regardless, in the current situation I would say that it is dangerous for Daycares to stay open as children are among those with the highest fatality risks. 

[dr. b 486]

17 hours ago, h2ojunkie said:

Daycare's don't technically fall under the same heading as schools. One of the reasons to keep them open is for the people that still have to work at essential businesses. We took our son out of daycare, so at least we will save like $240/week on that. 

 

Not sure what the situation is like where you're at, but here in Ontario the problem IMO is that the definition of an "essential workplace" is far too broad (as it is right now). The closure of non-essential business has not had a great enough effect. A more serious lockdown would require more people to actually stay home, which would also lower demand on daycare, allowing for at least some daycares - perhaps the majority of them - to also shutter for the duration of the lockdown. It would be a pretty dreadful few weeks but I think it would be more effective than what we're doing now. 

[Hikageryu 35]

My job is essential so i have my letter from the assistant Secretary of the Navy that i have to keep in my car in case we get pulled over when the shut down order happens.

[MT 899]

We have a similar thing at FedEx, but at least when we do our jobs we're in FedEx vehicles, so it's more often than not ok.

[Garlic Junior 136]

I can go into as much detail as the non-UK people would like to, however:

 

- around five weeks ago I began realising this lockdown would be worse than it was made out here and advised my friends to prepare for up to six weeks of no local services, no leaving the house except for valid reasons, etc

 

- I already had a decent (3/4 week) stock of food but topped it up, got some bottles of booze, helped a friend move house

 

- During the course of helping with the move, I developed a new dry cough. My chest isn't the strongest, I assumed it was just dust, went out to exercise on the Sunday as people were discussing "social distancing" and the UK were still in herd immunity mode

 

- I work face to face with up to 100 customers a day. My work advised any new cough/fever you should stay off for seven days. After two days of this new cough, the penny dropped with me how serious this is. I phoned to say I'd be off for a week, realistically I planned to stay off two weeks anyway. This was four weeks ago?

 

- On the Wednesday of that week, two things happened. My work shut down mostly, which means no government services except a skeleton bin collection, skeleton emergency repairs, and stupidly a skeleton phone answering team still expected to go into work. Everyone else work from home.

 

- The second thing is I felt like I'd gone ten rounds with Tyson. My body ached. I was delerious. My temp however was always half a degree under "fever".

 

- I still don't think I had COVID but goddamn do I want a test.

 

- It has now been four weeks since I started isolating, and I don't think the message is strong enough. People read "you should only leave your house once a day for exercise and only travel when you NEED essentials" and have misinterpreted that to mean you can go to the shops for bread and milk and can walk as far as you want to.

 

- My friend from the dreaded C place put it more bluntly. Exercise should be like 10 minutes in your garden. This shit is airborne. People here mingling in shops without facemasks. It's fucked.

 

- I'm running low on alcohol but have enough food for maybe two months. Although I'm working from home, my job will be the first to be forced back when government restrictions loosen. I had planned to quit a week ago before all this. I'm quitting on Thursday and staying indoors until we have actual community testing or a medical regime.

 

- My chest is shit and weak, I genuinely think if I get this it'll fuck me up, and everything else I've thought about this came true, even though I was seen as mad by my peers because I've been a week or two ahead of the game (thank you Reddit)

[Vic Boss 610]

Fuuuuuuck, here's hoping it's nothing too long-term serious and just some passing chest infection or something :(

[dr. b 486]

Shitty situation, but at least you are being cautious and all that gralic. Still quite a people out there, like you say, that haven't fully clued in. And if it indeed was COVID-19 that you were sick with recently, here's hoping that you are now immune to it for a decent chunk of time. But I don't think we know enough about that yet. Stay safe.

[Tassifox 413]

Shit I hope it's just bad flu for you instead of C19. And make sure that you're staying hydrated vs drinking as much. Alcohol does break down the immune system. At least you've been good about keeping track of your health and staying ahead of the game.

My work has finally announced that they are gonna limit the amount of people that come through our store at a time and do the 1 way traffic thing. Took them long enough.

[Eizan 126]

1 hour ago, Tassifox said:

My work has finally announced that they are gonna limit the amount of people that come through our store at a time and do the 1 way traffic thing. Took them long enough.

I hope they are going to actually do it right and not make it a joke, unlike Kroger. 

 

Seriously Kroger idea of limiting people is cutting store capacity in half (my store is 400 BTW). It's just like a slap in the face really. The Greed of Kroger just simply outweighs the safety of people, although they should really stop piling in places...

[Mera'din 306]

The regional grocery chain here is starting to get a bit more serious. They have plastic guards in front of the cashiers, and direction lines in all the aisles turning everything into 'one way streets' so nobody crosses paths and you're not allowed to put anything on the conveyor at checkout until the person in front of you is done and the cashier has sanitized the whole thing.

They also have someone standing at the doors doing nothing but sanitizing carts as they get put back most the times I've gone through there. Everyone that is working there is also getting a 10% pay increase while this is going on as "hazard pay" which is better than a lot of places I've seen. 

[webhead 518]

I just do store pickup.  I don't even get out of the car now because we both know what this is and he doesn't want me near him as much as I don't want him near me so it works.

 

@Garlic Junior Hope you feel better soon, bud.   I'm sure it's not the big one but still....treat yourself well.

[Galeigh 280]

You'd never know there was a pandemic around here if not for the empty store shelves and the gate guards for ft.  Campbell wearing face masks. 

 

Almost no one is treating it seriously. ESPECIALLY not in Ft. Campbell, the sheer amount of hand waving and lack of communication is terrifying.

[Tassifox 413]

On 4/7/2020 at 2:03 PM, Eizan said:

I hope they are going to actually do it right and not make it a joke, unlike Kroger. 

 

Seriously Kroger idea of limiting people is cutting store capacity in half (my store is 400 BTW). It's just like a slap in the face really. The Greed of Kroger just simply outweighs the safety of people, although they should really stop piling in places...

We only started today and I wasn't in the front end for my shift today so from what I asked my manager it's still a work in progress. But from what I know it's this for now:
* We have 2 entrances so we have locked the southern facing entrance and barricated the outside of it with signs, (the north one has the call button that staff use to get inside when our shifts start before we open the store).
* Someone is stationed at the north entrance to keep tally of the # of people going in and out. as for the capacity limit I don't know what we've cut it down to but I think it's supposed to be 30 percent of it.
* We haven't gotten the markings on the floor yet for the 1 way flow but I'm sure things will have changed again when I go in tomorrow. It's definitely fun to watch the shoplifters freak out a little from losing their alternate getaway exit from locking the south doors today. So many more were getting caught today.

@Mera'din, We got our plexi glass screens around the 20th of March, followed by the markers on the floor for the six feet rule, the baggers standing at the doors for the cart and hand basket sanitizing. We have the same company who waxes our floors at night are now coming during the day and cleaning/sanitizing the rest of the store like door handles/freezers/etc. and not allowing any shopping carts through our self check out as well as making self check fifteen items or less. They also extended our extra $2/hr "appreciation pay" through the 18th of April when it was going through 28th of March before.

[Garlic Junior 136]

Feeling back to 100%

 

Invoked the notice period at my work so in four week's time all I'll have to worry about is keeping myself safe

 

Getting a grocery delivery on Monday

 

So all in all, things are swell for me rn, just missing going places and seeing my friends/family

[webhead 518]

Glad you are feeling better bro.  Stay safe.  If you need to chat because you're going stir crazy, we're all hovering around Discord.

[dr. b 486]

5 hours ago, Garlic Junior said:

Invoked the notice period at my work so in four week's time all I'll have to worry about is keeping myself safe

 

What about rent/mortgage payments? 

[Garlic Junior 136]

On 4/9/2020 at 7:44 PM, little birdy said:

 

What about rent/mortgage payments? 

 

So for context, I had planned to quit the now anyway. I've been trying to leave my job for... many years.

 

Going to college in August. Have saved up enough money to survive three years on the bare minimum

[dr. b 486]

Good that you have your expenses covered up

 

Some nursing homes are getting hit pretty hard by COVID-19 in Ontario, and the number of new cases being reported does not appear to be dropping off much yet. Looks like the Ontario government is going to extend the state of emergency another 4 weeks this afternoon. They just have to vote on it in legislature first. 

 

I have avoided being laid off up to this point, working from home and still getting a full pay cheque, though we temporarily let go most of our warehouse staff last week and I assume I'll be in the next group to go if it comes to that. Could be more challenging times ahead. But at least my family is staying healthy so far. 

 

Ma: Did you see this story yesterday?

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/marc-dalton-mp-covid-19-deaths-1.5531115

Perhaps not an unreasonable question to ask, but I guess it came off to most as rather insensitive and he got in hot water for it. I guess he deleted the tweet pretty fast

[Vic Boss 610]

Two schools of thought and I think both are right

 

- We've mostly avoided it because social distancing is working

- It's mostly going to kill old folks. Except for our medical systems being overwhelmed and not having enough places to store dead bodies that would be swamping the hospitals in the largest cities, society could be functioning normally through all of this

 

Coming from a Conservative, it usually translates to "rich people are losing money, we're only going to lose poor people and old people so why aren't we sacrificing them so rich people can keep making money?!" Doesn't matter if he means it otherwise, that's how it gets read.

[Mera'din 306]

Aaaaand my whole company just got (at least) 10% sliced off their pay for (at minimum) the next 3 months, they removed the employer contributions on our 401k, and we're on lockdown from any overtime. Amounts to approx. a $2.25 per hour pay cut for me personally. I now make less than I did when I started this job 3 years ago.  

Attempting to mitigate the damage by increasing my withholding limit for Fed/State taxes (let them take more than necessary just to be safe normally), bottoming out my own 401k contribution (should add about 5% back on), and reducing my HSA contribution.

[h2ojunkie 87]

No pay cut for us but the normally scheduled merit pay raises are on hold for a couple of months. I can't complain about how much they pay me already so not getting an additional 2-4% for a couple months isn't going to hurt right now. All the VP level and above got all their bonuses put on hold also. 

[webhead 518]

20 hours ago, Death Rider Mox said:

Two schools of thought and I think both are right

 

- We've mostly avoided it because social distancing is working

- It's mostly going to kill old folks. Except for our medical systems being overwhelmed and not having enough places to store dead bodies that would be swamping the hospitals in the largest cities, society could be functioning normally through all of this

 

Coming from a Conservative, it usually translates to "rich people are losing money, we're only going to lose poor people and old people so why aren't we sacrificing them so rich people can keep making money?!" Doesn't matter if he means it otherwise, that's how it gets read.

 

What is "most deaths" in this case anyway?  One of the scary things about this is that is has killed a fair number of perfectly healthy (before this) people.  That's kind of fucking scary.  This whole "can we get back to normal so we don't lose money" thing is kind of a shitty way to think about things.  Things can't get back to "normal" but they should maybe reconsider how they're implementing these lock downs and look for ways to mitigate the spread but still allow people to work so they don't lose their houses and shit.

[dr. b 486]

What we need (according to me) is basically the ability to test anybody at any time, with quick results, on a wide scale. Test everybody right off the bat. Everybody who is in the clear can go back to work/school. Positive tests need to self isolate for two weeks and then have to pass another test before you can go back out into society. If you have symptoms even though you previously tested negative, get tested again. Positive -> self isolate for two weeks, and all the people you've been in close contact with need a test. I can't think of any other way to go "back to normal" and manage this situation until we have a widely available vaccine or proven herd immunity. I hope we can figure out a good testing solution soon. 

[Vic Boss 610]

4 hours ago, webhead said:

 

What is "most deaths" in this case anyway?  One of the scary things about this is that is has killed a fair number of perfectly healthy (before this) people.  That's kind of fucking scary.

 

Stats

 

If you're under 50, there's not even a half of a percent chance of you passing away from it, and that's only if you're  near-50. Conservatives and money-fucks are gonna be looking at things like that and doing the mental calculations that it's mostly retirees who are passing away, it's not like the Spanish Flu where it was killing prime workforce aged people in droves.

 

This whole "can we get back to normal so we don't lose money" thing is kind of a shitty way to think about things.

 

Yep, but Conservatives care more about money than people sooooo

[webhead 518]

6 hours ago, little birdy said:

What we need (according to me) is basically the ability to test anybody at any time, with quick results, on a wide scale. Test everybody right off the bat. Everybody who is in the clear can go back to work/school. Positive tests need to self isolate for two weeks and then have to pass another test before you can go back out into society. If you have symptoms even though you previously tested negative, get tested again. Positive -> self isolate for two weeks, and all the people you've been in close contact with need a test. I can't think of any other way to go "back to normal" and manage this situation until we have a widely available vaccine or proven herd immunity. I hope we can figure out a good testing solution soon. 

 

Yeah, the testing is where we're really fucking ourselves in the US.  The more testing we have, the more we can figure out who has it and isolate them.  Then we can get rid of some of the stay at home and shelter shit and slowly go more towards like...just testing fucking everyone everywhere.

 

2 hours ago, Vic Boss said:

 

Stats

 

If you're under 50, there's not even a half of a percent chance of you passing away from it, and that's only if you're  near-50. Conservatives and money-fucks are gonna be looking at things like that and doing the mental calculations that it's mostly retirees who are passing away, it's not like the Spanish Flu where it was killing prime workforce aged people in droves.

 

 

 

 

Yep, but Conservatives care more about money than people sooooo

 

So they're going to kill like...all of their voters?

[Vic Boss 610]

They should be willing to sacrifice themselves to save the economy, after all

[webhead 518]

[MT 899]

The city where my FedEx station is located just made it mandatory to wear a mask while outside of the house, so they finally handed us a mask (a cheap, one day use type, not sure if we'll get better ones in the future) to use. I wonder if that means we'll have to wear them even if we're not currently working in that city or not. I would imagine not.

[dr. b 486]

Not a bad idea to keep wearing the mask anyway