So, as seemed inevitable from the beginning of December, we entered the third lockdown of the pandemic here in the UK and have been stuck in it since the start of the year. Christmas plans were made, scrapped, made again, and then scrapped again - a plan to visit relatives abroad turned into a plan to visit relatives in the UK, which turned into a plan to stay at home. Travel to many countries from the UK is now impossible as flights have been banned. Schools have been closed since the start of the year meaning that life for children has become a never-ending, never-beginning holiday.
The bottom-point for morale was two weeks into lockdown, when it was clear that it would not end in early February but the holiday was no longer there to look forward to, and the greyness and ceaseless rain of the English winter left little opportunity to even go out. Then things slowly began to look a bit more hopeful as the vaccination campaign here in the UK got into its stride. Vaccination is not a panacea, but it raises the hope that, in May or whenever it is complete (at least for this first wave of vaccination) we might begin to live lives that are bit more ordinary.
I very much hope that once this is over the necessary investment is made in medical R&D to ensure that this, my second pandemic, is also the last that the world has to endure, at least at this level of seriousness.
3 comments:
Medical R&D? I would like so too, but no matter how much we spend they can't make vaccines for viruses that have not yet emerged.
Sorry to hear about your horrible winter under lockdown. The English winter weather would be the cherry on the cake. I'm "lucky" to be in China, although I can't easily leave Beijing for the holidays and I have to sign a QR code to get into literally any establishment. I also can't really leave China, at least if I want to come back, and god knows when that will change. But at least I can live relatively normally while I stay in Beijing.
The UK's doing great with vaccinations, within a few months you'll be living far more normally.
It used to be that visas had to be renewed outside of (mainland) China - I guess you're going to HK to do that if you have to?
Haha no, I'm not. First of all, Hong Kong is considered to be as good as "abroad" in terms of Covid-19 protection measures. If I go there, I'll have to quarantine in a hotel for 14 or even 21 days when I return to the Mainland. What's more, I don't think Hong Kong is letting non-resident foreigners in, although they might do if you come from the Mainland, not sure about that. Secondly, I have a work visa and you do not need to go abroad to renew those, as long as you continue working. You can even switch jobs while remaining in China, which I've just done. Also the Exit and Entry Administration are actually being more lax than usual about this kind of thing, because they know that foreigners can't really leave and then come back.
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