Covid-19 Quarantine

[Red Herring]

We probably just all have a cold, but the entire household is down with a mild form of something.

Meanwhile my brother's girlfriend is stuck abroad. She's alright but stuck in Nepal and currently unable to get back home to Europe (she had been teaching at a school for a few months). She is Belgian and my brother (they live together in Belgium) has talked to the Belgian foreign office who are working hard on getting expats back home somehow.

Update: They will fly her out of the country IF they can find 100 Belgians in Nepal wanting to leave... by tomorrow morning! Her parents are somewhere in the mountains with their phone off and will have to listen to their mailbox in the next few hours if a friend is to send a helicopter for them to get them to Kathmandu in time for the flight out.

Keep your fingers crossed!

 

[Smilephantomhive]

I hardly talk to anyone irl, so it feels pretty similar to me.

 

[Mad Hatter]

I phoned the local health office this morning - I'm getting tested tomorrow.
One of the students in a class I was supervising about two weeks ago was tested positive. About one week ago, I developed a curious case of anosmia (i.e., an acute loss of sense of smell). I have read that among a large number of those tested positive, anosmia was a common symptom, especially among those only lightly affected.
It doesn't feel like having a stuffy/runny nose, in fact I can breath perfectly fine through my nose and feel quite healthy overall. The only difference is a slight tingling sensation in and around the nose. It's quite an unusual phenomenon to observe.
I expect to get the result in the next days via text message. If anybody's interested, I'll share the result.

 

[Red Herring]

Update: The flight didn't happen and she was stuck another week but the French government organized a flight and agreed to give her an her parents a lift so she should be back home in Belgium very soon.

This could be a make or break moment for the EU. Italy and Spain need more assistance but there is already an exchange of patients and material as well as other practical help between EU countries and Germany is still taking in a few patients from other EU countries to help out. Personally I am very much in favor of a paneuropean bailout/financial help for those most affected.