03-15-2020, 04:49 AM
(This post was last modified: 03-16-2020, 04:15 AM by neon_jellyfish.)
Thank you very much, guys!!!
Davidd, Carly seems to be really happy about discovering giant glowing skull! (And what a lovely mishap, posting her here, but be careful, if Her Insane Majesty takes interest in her, it will be hard to get her back
)
Day 74
ETA: TL;DR - it's a mess, the hysteria is getting worse, but nobody died so far. Our government sucks. Almost everything is closed as of today. You can skip the rant and look at the photos now.
Re: the coronavirus spreading crime - that's pretty much how government works here. Fear tactics are the first solution to everything. When they put first people in quarantine, they said that anyone who breaks it and goes out will be fined 3 million Crowns, roughly 126 000 USD. That's insane! You usually don't pay that much even when you injure someone, and people here just don't have that kind of money. It's just meant to scare people into complying and make it look like government is doing something about the epidemy, but there are no ways for these people to, say, get food or other basic stuff, government won't help with that, they'll just watch and collect money if someone decides not to starve to death.
As for the crime of spreading the virus, it started with people calling ambulance but not admitting they have symptoms, instead they complained about injuries or pains, then medics came without protective gear (because we have a serious shortage of it, so it's being saved for dealing with COVID-19 patients), then those idiots are all like whoopsie, turns out I wasn't injured, I have fever, sore throat and runny nose, also I just returned from Italy, hehe. So to prevent that, they made a law that makes spreading the coronavirus a crime, so when you have symptoms and go somewhere or lie about it, you can go to prison for 6 months, or pay a fine, not sure how much is that one. No idea what are they going to do with people who go to work in the morning then get symptoms midday. It's not thought through, it's just another hot fix scare tactic, mostly to stop people who lie when they call ambulance (no idea why they do it and what do they ex-pect to happen).
* * *
Starting today, all shops except for pharmacies, grocery stores, drug stores, pet shops (those that supply pet food), gas stations and stores that sell electronics and appliances are closed. Banks and such too. You can't even get your car repaired. Restaurants are also closed, those that have take-out windows can sell through those, but nobody is allowed inside. Some restaurants were quite creative with this, making makeshift take-out windows, I didn't manage to snap a picture today, but will try again next week. Basically, they open doors, barricade the lower half with furniture or cardboard, delcare the remaining aperture a take-out window and hand the food through it.
This sudden shutdown made things bad, because the government doesn't give any warnings, so hotels and restaurants that can't switch to take-outs got into serious problems, as well as all the shops that weren't permitted to stay open.
People are starting to panic again, because the government makes new rules and changes the already established ones two or three times a day, so nobody can count on anything.
They also keep changing the nobody in or out policy, so it's confusing. Right now, nobody from countries with coronavirus can come in (unless they're a citizen or have a long-term visa or permission to work here), and Czechs aren't allowed to go to these countries, but safe countries are OK. That will change at midnight, nobody will be allowed to enter, even if they're from coronavirus-free country, and Czechs won't be allowed to go abroad, not even to safe countries. Citizens and people from foreign countries who live here can come back any time, but they have to go to quarantine, tourists can leave, but won't be allowed to return. For some reason, the govt felt the need to specifically state that leaving tourists aren't allowed to come back, eventhough we already have the no tourists in rule. Czech people who are stranded abroad will be picked up by special buses or airplanes, and Czech Republic and other EU countries made an agreement that family members will be allowed to cross the boarders to pick up their families stuck at airports and such. Truck drivers also have a permission to come and go, so the supply of goods should continue without issues.
Czech Republic has 10.65 million inhabitants, as of this writing, there are 189 confirmed cases of COVID-19, one person has serious issues, the same one as yesterday, and they're actually starting to do better now, still no deaths (thank gods). I don't think that the situation is dire enough to warrant all this mess. Plus, when we declare a state of emergency, government is supposed to listen to ex-perts and follow certain procedures, but instead, they're doing what they want, pretending they're solving the issue and getting that sweet sweet screen time, and everyone is eating it up. I'm sick of us.
Whew. Anyhoo, I decided to go on a walk and check what the city looks like when almost everything is closed. There are much less people in the streets, but Prague is usually bursting at the seams, so even with just a fraction of that amount, it's still quite a few people. Here's Liselotte in the Old Town Square with cca 1/10 of the usual March crowd.
![[Image: 50ddcb57700b9a2fffb457515ec86cd2.jpg]](https://i.pinimg.com/564x/50/dd/cb/50ddcb57700b9a2fffb457515ec86cd2.jpg)
![[Image: 46ab1c8af989e60394660dd44e7cf812.jpg]](https://i.pinimg.com/564x/46/ab/1c/46ab1c8af989e60394660dd44e7cf812.jpg)
I'll go back there when the weather is nice and the hysteria is over, take more photos and tell you about all those buildings.
Davidd, Carly seems to be really happy about discovering giant glowing skull! (And what a lovely mishap, posting her here, but be careful, if Her Insane Majesty takes interest in her, it will be hard to get her back
)Day 74
ETA: TL;DR - it's a mess, the hysteria is getting worse, but nobody died so far. Our government sucks. Almost everything is closed as of today. You can skip the rant and look at the photos now.
Re: the coronavirus spreading crime - that's pretty much how government works here. Fear tactics are the first solution to everything. When they put first people in quarantine, they said that anyone who breaks it and goes out will be fined 3 million Crowns, roughly 126 000 USD. That's insane! You usually don't pay that much even when you injure someone, and people here just don't have that kind of money. It's just meant to scare people into complying and make it look like government is doing something about the epidemy, but there are no ways for these people to, say, get food or other basic stuff, government won't help with that, they'll just watch and collect money if someone decides not to starve to death.
As for the crime of spreading the virus, it started with people calling ambulance but not admitting they have symptoms, instead they complained about injuries or pains, then medics came without protective gear (because we have a serious shortage of it, so it's being saved for dealing with COVID-19 patients), then those idiots are all like whoopsie, turns out I wasn't injured, I have fever, sore throat and runny nose, also I just returned from Italy, hehe. So to prevent that, they made a law that makes spreading the coronavirus a crime, so when you have symptoms and go somewhere or lie about it, you can go to prison for 6 months, or pay a fine, not sure how much is that one. No idea what are they going to do with people who go to work in the morning then get symptoms midday. It's not thought through, it's just another hot fix scare tactic, mostly to stop people who lie when they call ambulance (no idea why they do it and what do they ex-pect to happen).
* * *
Starting today, all shops except for pharmacies, grocery stores, drug stores, pet shops (those that supply pet food), gas stations and stores that sell electronics and appliances are closed. Banks and such too. You can't even get your car repaired. Restaurants are also closed, those that have take-out windows can sell through those, but nobody is allowed inside. Some restaurants were quite creative with this, making makeshift take-out windows, I didn't manage to snap a picture today, but will try again next week. Basically, they open doors, barricade the lower half with furniture or cardboard, delcare the remaining aperture a take-out window and hand the food through it.
This sudden shutdown made things bad, because the government doesn't give any warnings, so hotels and restaurants that can't switch to take-outs got into serious problems, as well as all the shops that weren't permitted to stay open.
People are starting to panic again, because the government makes new rules and changes the already established ones two or three times a day, so nobody can count on anything.
They also keep changing the nobody in or out policy, so it's confusing. Right now, nobody from countries with coronavirus can come in (unless they're a citizen or have a long-term visa or permission to work here), and Czechs aren't allowed to go to these countries, but safe countries are OK. That will change at midnight, nobody will be allowed to enter, even if they're from coronavirus-free country, and Czechs won't be allowed to go abroad, not even to safe countries. Citizens and people from foreign countries who live here can come back any time, but they have to go to quarantine, tourists can leave, but won't be allowed to return. For some reason, the govt felt the need to specifically state that leaving tourists aren't allowed to come back, eventhough we already have the no tourists in rule. Czech people who are stranded abroad will be picked up by special buses or airplanes, and Czech Republic and other EU countries made an agreement that family members will be allowed to cross the boarders to pick up their families stuck at airports and such. Truck drivers also have a permission to come and go, so the supply of goods should continue without issues.
Czech Republic has 10.65 million inhabitants, as of this writing, there are 189 confirmed cases of COVID-19, one person has serious issues, the same one as yesterday, and they're actually starting to do better now, still no deaths (thank gods). I don't think that the situation is dire enough to warrant all this mess. Plus, when we declare a state of emergency, government is supposed to listen to ex-perts and follow certain procedures, but instead, they're doing what they want, pretending they're solving the issue and getting that sweet sweet screen time, and everyone is eating it up. I'm sick of us.
Whew. Anyhoo, I decided to go on a walk and check what the city looks like when almost everything is closed. There are much less people in the streets, but Prague is usually bursting at the seams, so even with just a fraction of that amount, it's still quite a few people. Here's Liselotte in the Old Town Square with cca 1/10 of the usual March crowd.
I'll go back there when the weather is nice and the hysteria is over, take more photos and tell you about all those buildings.