We gave Covid 19 the keys to our house 67 days ago, how are things going?

It is 08.00 am on Friday 6 November 2020, sixty-seven days from the start of the school year.  

The cheery thing to report

Mum and dad and all the other school parents got a nice email from our school director, congratulating us for the major effort to get all the kids kitted out and complying with the all-day wearing of masks. It appears that mum and dad’s initial concerns about lack of compliance were unfounded. Let’s hope the practice is sustainable going forward. It’s really no fun wearing masks, whichever way you look at it, this first flush of enthusiasm will be difficult to keep up. 

The not-so-cheery thing to report

Mum and Dad normally do a weekly update of the school risks, to be satisfied that there no weak points in their home Covid security system that they need, and can, deal with themselves. With the lockdown, all the school risks have been examined anew this week. We found two problems:

• The schoolbag and its contents: A problem from Day One of school, Child goes from home to school to home each day carrying a schoolbag (weighing some 8 kgs, but that is another story!) complete with a library of more than 8 lesson books + two large pencil cases, + her own labelled water bottle + snack box + tissues + spare pants + for the last 7 days, a small sealed plastic waterproof bag with 3 masks. This educational melange is constantly opened and closed goodness knows how many times each day, with lots of opportunity for the schoolbag to be directly contaminated, anointed and blessed by any passing Covid 19 sitting quietly in a mask.
• PLUS, The not-so-small matter of Child changing masks three times a day – in and out + in and out + in and out – of pouch and schoolbag. Not only that, as soon as the first used mask is replaced in the pouch and a second one put In, the used mask is cuddling up to the last clean third mask. It’s natural to suspect that the mask pouch is a new way for Covid 19 to sneak into the home, a new risk for mum and dad and every other family homes in the same situation.
• Mum and dad’s response? There is no quick, solid, reliable solution to cleaning the schoolbag or its contents. Until last week, the only protective response in place was to periodically wash the schoolbag itself, nothing else. So, yet another new stressful school cleaning procedure is added to the home Covid security programme, viz:
  • Schoolbag stays in the entrance hall + one designated desk for all homework + liberal before and after handwashing + isolation of used pouch and masks + nightly sterilisation of masks + new pouch for the next day. Yes, mum and dad thought about insisting that Child uses two daily mask pouches, one for clean and a second for used, but decided against it – Child is managing her Covid stress very well, but they reasoned that existing school procedures are already more than enough to cope with, without adding a new individual procedure.

• The French lockdown, 7 days on

• What’s happened in the first seven days?

Here are the daily French Covid 19 results for new confirmed cases and deaths as reported to the World Health Organisation:

THE DAILY LOCKDOWN RESULTS FOR NEW CONFIRMED COVID 19 CASES AND DEATHS

WEEK 1	Oct 31	Nov 1	Nov 2	Nov 3	Nov 4	Nov 5	Nov 6	TOTALS
New cases	936	-16,043	16,760	2,866	-15,902	3,553	18,200
Cumulative cases	48,753	32,530	49,290	52,156	36,524	39,807	58,017	58,017
Deaths	531	223	231	411	854	386	363	2,999

What can one say about this detailed daily focus on the Covid 19 impact? Not a lot – it just feels so sad, so avoidable, so wrong.

As expected for week 1 of lockdown, just more new cases and more deaths, with another three thousand new families left reeling, having to say goodbye from a distance, what a horrible way to begin the mourning process. There needs to be a day of judgement once the pandemic is over.

And meanwhile the new school masks programme

Child has had no problems, no complaints on their use, only comments are on design – ‘This one is boring, I like that one, no, I am not wearing THAT’  Dad is sure these fashion statements are Child copying her mum, but that’s OK as long as she was wearing the darn things as instructed.

• Optimising our general immunity readiness – and other promoters of our general immunity readiness:

Mum and dad are now concentrating hard on maintaining and refining the new daily lockdown schedule and incorporating the new ‘Schoolbag’ programme in the light of the latest school risk assessment.

The immunity programme, as laid out in previous issues, continues unchanged for now, until we settle in to the new routine, and work through the implications of the self-imposed home lockdown extension period, into the new year.

Finally, after 67 days of exposure to school, what about Mum and Dad – are they coping?:

Comparing the experience of the first lockdown with this second one, mum and dad definitely prefer the first. It was much better policed and people behaviour was monitored more closely. Second time around, not so nice, therefore more stressful, but not dramatically so.

The worst example is the absolute failure of the authorities to specify the confinement behaviour of joggers (whose numbers seem to multiply exponentially each day!). They delight in jogging anywhere that takes their fancy, whizzing past as close as possible, no social distancing at all, panting hard and pumping out a slipstream laden with their exhaled secretions. The jogger’s message? ‘I really don’t care about you at all, not one little bit.’

On the positive side, there are more stringent conditions for the big supermarkets that sell everything. The vast majority of non-food products have been cordoned off. This has substantially reduced the footfall, (great!) making the experience quicker and simpler.

Not surprisingly though, a number of small shops are remaining open in defiance of the order for all non-essential shops to close. The best example in mum and dad’s neighbourhood is the local chocolate shop – maybe that is deemed essential in the French psyche, and yes, I suppose it is uplifting and indulgent to have a perfect hot chocolate on a cold day! Maybe they are authorised to stay open to raise the mood of the oppressed citizenry?

By John Saunders

World Health Communication Associates (WHCA) & INSPIRIT Creatives UG NGO,
MediaWise and MediaFocusUK

Strengthening connections
while keeping distance

News You Can Use

We are all vulnerable to this virus. This is a unique time for our communities all over the world as we work to combat this massive global threat. This blog aims to collect and share your stories and reflections that can help others to cope, thrive and build resilience…

Our communities are at different stages of response in different parts of the world. We can learn a lot from each other. Building on World Health Organization and other evidence-based guidance, this blog will gather and disseminate stories that inform, inspire and hopefully strengthen social connectiveness while we all practice physical distancing.

We invite you to contribute. At present we are looking for stories in the following areas:

May the force be with all of us.

Sabrina, Mike, Steve, Tuuli and Franklin for the Connecting Communities team

BLOG: https://www.inspiritcreatives.com/coronavirus-connecting-communities
Email: cccov19@gmail.com
See: https://www.whcaonline.org | https://www.inspiritcreatives.com/humanity
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/12385075/ | Twitter: @connecting_comm
News: https://cccovid19.org/corona_virus/

Disclaimer – We try to include stories that respect World Health Organisation COVID19 guidance. Links take you to full published stories. Our Connecting Communities team screens and selects stories but can not guarantee accuracy of reporting and mentions of any products does not indicate endorsement.

While we grieve for the tremendous loss of lives in so many countries, we can see and feel that the need to connect communities and share learning grows everyday. Please attach your comments and stories to this blog or send them to cccov19@gmail.com or attach them to this blog. We welcome stories in all languages and from all countries. Here are some first examples of stories and links. Send us yours and make this blog useful.