24th March
My teacher friends in the UK are muddling through with online teaching and going into schools to take care of vulnerable children and those of key workers. There doesn't seem to be any uniform response or detailed plan as to who should be working with them, some schools are taking children of key workers regardless, while others will only take those who have both parents as key workers. Other children receive lessons or work online.
I get some photos from one of my sons and his wife who are now homeschooling their boys. They send me their timetable, the boys are so excited at the prospect of the fun activities they can't wait to start. And happy pictures of them and their little sister playing outside.
We have a Zoom call with the VSO country director and all the international volunteers who remain. He tells us the British Government has asked all foreign nationals to return home, even though no flights are available. He wants to know if that were an option would we like to go? It's a hard choice especially after seeing all the pictures of my grandchildren, but I know in reality that if I were to go back, I wouldn't be able to see my family for 14 days, and my parents not at all, and have no home or job to go back to. We all decide we will stay and it's agreed that we will have a weekly call together to check in.
Boris Johnson issues a statement that there are to be no more gatherings in public of more than two people, excluding the people you live with, and will only be able to leave home for essentials like shopping for food, essential work, or a medical need. All non essential shops to close immediately.
Despite it being Day 53 for the UK with 8,077 cases and with 422 deaths, Rwanda on Day 8 with only 17 cases and no deaths had already implemented these strategies (3 days ago) and are following them through.
After publicly calling Covid-19 'The Chinese Virus’, Trump says, amid rising reports of verbal and physical attacks on the community,
‘It is very important that we totally protect out Asian American community in the United States and all around the world….they’re amazing people and the spreading of the virus is not their fault in any way, shape or form,’
Although everyone is able to see from the Ministry of Health's daily update exactly where the virus has been imported from in each case, and it was known from the start that the first case came from someone who had flown from India, no one here appears to equate this with any racial discrimination.
Four more cases identified in Rwanda bring the number to 40.
The US has 42,200.