Coronavirus Chronicle Day 78: State of Emergency

Today I was thinking that I was gonna write about my struggles being out of the pool (it's been four days, which is not out of the ordinary for me yet) and that sort of thing, but instead my province (Saskatchewan) announced a state of emergency. We saw our cases of coronavirus increase from eight to sixteen, and I have heard anecdotally of several others being tested right now as well.

I'm not sure if there's ever been a province-wide state of emergency in my lifetime. I do know there have been local states of emergency for flooding, drought, mental health, etc. I don't even really know what a "state of emergency" means in terms of what the province is able to do—just that it grants what amount to "special powers" to the provincial government.

This has only exacerbated my frustration that I'm somehow still showing up at the office every day despite the fact that I'm not supposed to see any of my friends or really my relatives. Also, my concern about where this all ends when it comes to social interactions, the economy, security, climate, blah blah blah. My ability to focus at work is at a very low point. I dealt with some personal issues last year that were actually way more disruptive to my own ability to focus, but the difference there was that mostly everyone else was still business as usual. Currently we're all just sort of uncertain.

Most of all I hate how this whole situation has made me so suspicious of people. Who's coughing today, who sounds like they have a sore throat, why did that person show up at the office after experiencing a fever?

At present, my coping tactics are to send a message of some kind to a different friend or family member every day (and I have lots of them, so I won't be running out of new people anytime soon) as well as making up my mind to unplug this weekend as much as I possibly can.

Pandemic Reading

Here's everything I've been reading since the WHO decided to call this a pandemic:

• Currently reading Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
• Currently reading The Year's Best SF (35th Annual Collection) edited by Gardner Dozois
• The Lady from the Black Lagoon by Mallory O'Meara

Some Resources/Tracking

• WHO's Noval Coronavirus (COVID-19) Situation Dashboard (updated daily as far as I can tell, as it says there are 244 cases in Canada at time of posting, but the Canadian government is reporting over 300 cases)
• Government of Canada Coronavirus (COVID-19) Outbreak Update
• Self-assessment tool from the government of Saskatchewan, via Alberta Health Services

(I'll add to this list if I come across anything good.)

Stay healthy and wash your hands!