[Luis Dias]

that was a good analogy.

[Colonol Dekker]

And you know there's no analogy without.......

Spoiler:

Log.  What were you expecting you sicko 😜

[Grizzly]

I like how Trump comes to the correct conclusion that Sweden not locking down a mistake, and then says the US ... has made the correct decision despite them doing less then Sweden has done?

[Dysko]

A very nice analysis of the clusterf**k happening here: https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-04-26/perfect-storm-virus-disaster-in-italys-lombardy-region-is-a-lesson-for-the-world?fbclid=IwAR2gqZkZgvyXzrgoGTJnP4cOBScqGmM5VtanqbzQNDgvSEDqj7tiwqDYb3o

Less than 3 days before some restrictions are lifted, and still the situation is as described in the article.

I give it 1 month before at least Lombardy (let's hope the rest of Italy is spared) will be put back into lockdown 

[BlueFlames]

On this, the first day of Tennessee's phased reopening, the state health department discovered ~1,000 previously unreported cases of COVID-19.

So we're off to a great start.

Fortunately, no call from my bosses today, so I haven't yet had to choose between my health or my job.

[Solatar]

On this, the first day of Tennessee's phased reopening, the state health department discovered ~1,000 previously unreported cases of COVID-19.

I think today is the first day of phase 2 in Tennessee, not the first day of the phased reopening. I was ordered back to work on Monday. I had to quit, because I've worked in restaurants long enough to know that it's not a good idea (if you enjoy eating at restaurants and have never worked at one, never work at one, you'll never eat out again). I also don't think it should be the waiter/bartender's responsibility to screen you about your COVID exposure, because I'm not a medical professional, and because of the way tipped pay works in the US, the person I'm "screening" is also the one deciding how much to pay me. You think the rednecks that go out in the first few weeks of the pandemic are going to like being questioned about it by a server?

[BlueFlames]

Notwithstanding the fact that the stay-at-home order had so many exceptions that it was hard to call Tennessee "closed" at all, yesterday was the first day of reopening.

Yes, dine-in restraunts were opened in the first phase.    So too were brick-and-mortar retail stores and gyms.

Phase two starts this coming week and will include salons, so that Karen can finally get that haircut that's apparently worth the lives of a few old folks.

In any case, I'm glad you're staying safe, Solatar.  I know a lot of people aren't so lucky to have the option to "voluntarily" leave their job for any length of time.

[Solatar]

I'm very lucky to be in a position where I could just up and quit (we live in a paid off house on a small farm, so we have some bills but no giant rent payment, and I'm one of the lucky ones who's actually been getting an unemployment check for a month). I left education a few years ago because you can make about the same amount of money bartending as you can teaching in a charter school in Tennessee, and also have a wife and a life, but I don't think restaurant jobs will be viable anymore and it's looking like I'm going to have to start using my education again.

We were the last restaurant left open in Gallatin when the closures started (the restaurant next door got closed by the health department a day earlier because it came out on Facebook that a staff member had tested positive and had been going to work with symptoms for two days, but corporate wouldn't shut it down), and if the people coming in then are the same people who are going out now then it's truly an invasion of the Karens.

[Luis Dias]

In Portugal, the big "scandal" now is that the first of May was celebrated with all kinds of hygienic measures we've all seen on the internet (distancing, masks, gloves, etc.), and the right wing was just groveling on their own misery, "why are these guys allowed to do this", etc.

They did the same pathetic outrage a week before, in the 25th April celebrations that mark 46 years since the Carnation Revolution freed Portugal from the fascistic dictatorship, surrounding the parliamentary yearly homage to the event.

IOW, we're doing fine. Masks have become available, if yet expensive (50 masks for 25 euros, the cheaper option in a particular supermarket, most are around 1 € per mask), which means in 3 days the whole country is obligated to wear masks by law in public areas, all the while when the economy is about to open up. We're doing incredibly in terms of tests, which surprised the heck out of me. So I'm genuinely positive about my own country's situation, albeit things can change in a heartbeat.

We'll see.

[Det. Bullock]

Here in Sicily we've been lucky.
To be fair the entire region is a big island plus a bunch of smaller ones (including the one I live in) so controlling traffic in and out of the region has been relatively easy and fortunately region president Musumeci (for all the Americans: think of a governor though not quite, Sicily though is one of the regions with extra autonomy) didn't get into the rightwing asshattery Salvini and Meloni have been up to.
We had very few cases in the Aeolian Islands all quickly contained, and one or two false alarms.

[Ghostavo]

In Portugal, the big "scandal" now is that the first of May was celebrated with all kinds of hygienic measures we've all seen on the internet (distancing, masks, gloves, etc.), and the right wing was just groveling on their own misery, "why are these guys allowed to do this", etc.

They did the same pathetic outrage a week before, in the 25th April celebrations that mark 46 years since the Carnation Revolution freed Portugal from the fascistic dictatorship, surrounding the parliamentary yearly homage to the event.

IOW, we're doing fine. Masks have become available, if yet expensive (50 masks for 25 euros, the cheaper option in a particular supermarket, most are around 1 € per mask), which means in 3 days the whole country is obligated to wear masks by law in public areas, all the while when the economy is about to open up. We're doing incredibly in terms of tests, which surprised the heck out of me. So I'm genuinely positive about my own country's situation, albeit things can change in a heartbeat.

We'll see.

I'm kind of torn on allowing these kinds of social gatherings to take place. The last massive social gatherings in our little corner of the globe had somewhat disastrous consequences.

[Colonol Dekker]

Well back to the grindstone,  few uxo finds in Kent recently so I'm off to provide site overwatch to the junior bods for the foreseeable future.

[Luis Dias]

I'm kind of torn on allowing these kinds of social gatherings to take place. The last massive social gatherings in our little corner of the globe had somewhat disastrous consequences.

Well, this is the kind of stuff that happened:

[Grizzly]

Things are very slowly opening up here now.

[Scourge of Ages]

So, uh, how is everybody doing? Are you still sheltering where you are? Are things getting back to sort-of normal yet?

[Su-tehp]

Still sheltering except when I'm going to my essential job at the supermarket. Since I didn't get direct deposit yet, I have to find a new way to deposit my paychecks because the bank's office branch is closed.

[Det. Bullock]

So, uh, how is everybody doing? Are you still sheltering where you are? Are things getting back to sort-of normal yet?

Still sheltering but we still have reservations in June, I already live in my workplace technically speaking but at least until now I was only keeping the living quarters reasonably clean (and the occasional e-mail, mostly to remind people they could cancel for free given the circumstances) while the rest of the family did some maintenance on the hotel proper.

[Mito [PL]]

My administrative region which is just a tiny bit larger than 50k square kilometers and just below 1,2 million people has got very encouraging statistics. Total confirmed cases - 384, 303 of which are cured, 7 dead. Last confirmed new case was two days ago, and before that there were two infected people found two days earlier. Numbers are pretty consistently going down to on average one new infection found per day.

Currently about 1500 people in preventative self-quarantine.

[Colonol Dekker]

Onsite commercial EOD.  Moderately key work 👍👍

[Colt]

Elementary schools and daycares in my province opened back up this week (high schools, universities etc. are off until the fall), though Montreal and its suburbs are holding back on that for another week or two since it's the epicenter of the outbreak.  Currently Quebec accounts for more than half of Canada's total cases (38,469, total in Canada 69,981), with MTL alone amounting to over a quarter of the country's cases. My municipality in Montreal is reporting between 100-249 cases, some of which have likely recovered by now, but our proximity to downtown (20 minute bus ride+10 in the metro) has kept people on edge.

Thankfully people are taking distancing seriously, and most are wearing masks when they go into stores or other areas where close contact us almost unavoidable. I don't agree with provincial government's decision to reopen as quickly as they want to, since we're still getting anywhere between 700-900 new cases a day. Guess we'll see what happens in the coming weeks.