BREAKING NEWS: The WHO has just officially declared the COVID-19 coronavirus to be a worldwide pandemic.
Source: CNN, Arab Times Kuwait, ladieswhodolunch Instagram
Everyone around me is freaking out because rumor has it that all of Kuwait will be going on a 2 week vacation starting tomorrow. This means all public spaces- public and private, including restaurants, cafes, gyms and malls will be closed. All commercial flights will also be suspended. The only people allowed to fly are Kuwaiti citizens and their immediate family. There has been a lot of fake news and rumors circulating social media recently, so the closure isn’t 100% certain yet, but it does seem pretty official. Videos from social media are also showing people panic buying at grocery stores right now, stocking up on essential supplies before everything shuts down. Admittedly, running to the grocery store to buy food was one of the first thoughts that popped into my head, but then I thought that everyone would be panic buying right now. Turns out I was right. When things get shut down because of the coronavirus, the last thing you probably want to do is rush into a crowded grocery store and potentially get the virus from someone else. I’m also pretty certain that supermarkets will remain open even if everything else is closed, because they just have to. Right?! Worse comes to worst, I still have rice, noodles and a bunch of Asian snacks that will tide me over for the next 2 weeks. Good thing I shop like it’s the apocalypse regularly, even without the coronavirus. This is mostly because I’m cheap and try to save money on cabbing to the supermarket. Everytime I go I stock up on frozen meats and other foods so I don’t have to make grocery runs too often.
Source: Worldometer.com
Wow. As I’m sitting here writing this post, so many more things have been brought to my attention. Granted, it has been about an hour, but traffic is piling up outside, particularly near the grocery store behind our building. Also, there has been 2313 new cases in Italy today. TODAY. That is INSANE. It blows my mind. I cannot even comprehend what that must be like. It is currently March 11, 2020 9:19PM Kuwait time, and there are 124,923 coronavirus cases reported in the world. These days, the first thing I do when I wake up is search for coronavirus news and updates, both globally and locally. Since I started about 2 days ago, the number was at about 118,000 and it has increased by more than 6,000 cases in the last couple of days. Again, this is insane!
I remember when the most panic-inducing thing this year was when the US was on the verge of war with Iran. Tensions were high for about a day, but blew over quickly. It was long enough for us to lose a teacher though! She hightailed out of here pretty quickly, which I don’t totally blame her, as it was pretty scary for a bit. This pandemic, however, has kept tensions high for awhile, and realistically, probably will for another month or so. We are currently wrapping up our second week of online learning, with 2 more to go. Now with the announcement that all public and private sectors are off for the next 2 weeks, I wonder if we will still have to hold virtual lessons?
Note: This blog post was actually written on March 11, 2020 but I didn’t get a chance to post it. I never thought that my first blog post would be about such a heavy topic, but hey, it is all thanks to the coronavirus that I’m actually getting around to writing a blog post, right?
Travelling Gazelle 