Ruth and John

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Our cat Danny is gone. John and I were pretty upset of course. Our other cat, Tommy, adapted quickly to being without his brother. I hang out with him more than before and he now has no competition for sleeping places throughout our home and no competition for treats or special foods. I'm happy that he is happy. Even though the virus confinement isn't a great burden I think the loss of freedom has me in a uneasy place and exacerbated my feeling down after Danny died.. Of course I support what the government is doing regarding the confinement here but, of course, I will be happy when restrictions are safely lessened. I go out periodically. John stays inside most of the time these last several days because the pollen count is so high. He said the confinement hasn't stressed him at all. He focuses a lot on projects. He likes and is used to a lot of structure.

Before I get into data and scary info I want to start with a link to a very optimistic poetry bedtime story by a young English movie producer. It's titled "The Great Realization" (aka 2020). I sent it to some of you previously. You can view it on You Tube.

Covid-19 France and Other European Countries

Italy and Spain's new Corona virus cases are decreasing a lot since April 1. French officials said they will likely lift the confinement in some parts of the country before others. Soon France will mandate wearing masks in public. New York is already doing that. The stats say the cases in France are decreasing but France is testing 1/2 to 1/3 the amount of nearby countries so our cases should be higher in reality.

Cleaning -- what and how we clean to protect against the virus. When we receive groceries I clean plastic and metal containers with soap and water and alcohol (at least 60% solution) swab the rest. Once a week I alcohol swap (after cleaning) all frequently touched surfaces. The bleach solution for cleaning is 5 tablespoon bleach to one gallon of water - don't add anything else or you might produce chlorine gas. Sine the start of the Coronaviruss outbreak in the US the poison control center has seen a 23% increase in calls related to cleaning products. A bit more after Trump suggested taking cleaning products internally.

Face masks are now mandatory in Germany - fines up to 5,000 euros They will be mandatory in France the second week of May. The governor of Ohio made them mandatory but backed down after protests. Macron said that people over 65 and those with compromised immune systems or existing chronic illnesses. such as diabetes, cancer, respiratory problems and other underlying conditions should stay confined for their welfare until a vaccine is manufactured. There were significant protests and he backed down.

I was not happy. Of course I don't want to be confined but the protests should not decide emergency health policies. OK -- it's complicated. I just want them to do it right the first time rather than us have to do this over and over and over again. Our Prime Minister, Edouard Phillippe, gave another public announcement explaining that everything will be evaluated in real time and that science will drive the decisions). France is still not testing nearly enough -- they need to test 2-4 times more than they are now. Phillipe's announcement stated that they will increase testing soon.

Today the CDC officially added these six symptoms to its list: chills, repeated shaking with chills, muscle pain, headache, sore throat, new loss of taste or smell, in addition to previously known symptoms of fever, cough, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing.

Prime Minister Edouard Philippe announced a goal to provide "700,000 virological tests per week, from May 11", after deconfinement begins. In anticipation, French news source FranceInfo has answered some key questions on the tests.

France is testing less than what the UK and US are testing and 1/2 what Spain, Italy and Germany are testing. Our PM said French testing will pick up significantly after the deconfinement has begun on May 11 but they need to be testing more now so they know how many cases they have BEFORE they initiate deconfinement. It could easily be that France is the epicenter of Europe's pandemic but they just don't know it yet because they test only 1/3 as much as they should.

The confinement in France will begin to end on May 11 and the main points of what will change can be found here.

A few of those main points are:
No permission slip needed after May 11th...
As long as you are not traveling more than 100km from home
Masks will be made compulsory in some sectors, for example on the metro and in secondary schools
Everyone working from home should continue to do so
Elementary schools to reopen, but with max 10 children in each group
Shops to reopen
Bars, restaurants, cinemas and beaches remain closed
Public gatherings of up to 10 people allowed
No religious ceremonies before June

The PM outlined a "phase one" from May 11th to June 2nd, when the necessary steps for the "next phase" ("until summer") would be determined.

The entire speech is available here.

It's in French. If you need to translate you can right-click in Chrome or paste the above url into the left pane of https://translate.google.com/ and then click on the link in the right pane.

After May 11th the French public are going to have to learn to live with the virus, the PM warned. "As long as we don't have a vaccine, or reached collective immunity, the virus will continue to circulate among us," the PM said, outlining that this was the "first axis" of the government's strategy: "protecting, testing, isolating." "We therefore need to learn to live with the virus," he said.

The second axis was that the easing of the current lockdown would be "progressive." The government aimed to gradually relieve restrictions in order to continue to protect the country's hospitals.

"At the end of the lockdown (May 11th) we will be able to carry out 700,000 virology tests per week," Philippe said.

The cost of the tests would be covered "100 percent by social security," (social security is what they call medicare for all here in France) the PM said. Shops and stores will be allowed to reopen from May 11th as long as they have protective measures in place to ensure social distancing and "hygiene barriers." Shop owners can, starting May 11th, require customers to wear masks.

Map of the state of Coronavirus in each French department (similar to a US state). Here in Rennes (n Northern Brittany), we're green. A new map will be presented every evening in the run up to a decisive map shown on May 7. The map shown on May 7, which will only feature red and green, will be used to determine the way in which deconfinement measures will be applied to individual departments as the end of lockdown begins on May 11.

A broader deconfinement will be applied in green departments and more constraints and stricter action in red departments. Mr Véran stressed the provisional nature of the map.

In red departments "there will be the possibility of closing schools if necessary as well as closing a certain number of shops and outdoor places if necessary," he told the public-service media FranceInfo on April 29.

This first map is made up of combination of two sets of data - the number of consultations in emergency departments of cases made by people suspected to have Covid-19 and the capacity and 'stress levels' of local hospitals' resuscitation units.

Unsurprisingly, all of eastern France and the Ile-de-France region are shown in red, the central part of the country and the south-east in orange (an intermediary colour ranking) and much of the west of the country in green - apart from the Lot department. Three departments are contesting the choice of colour attributed to them. Authorities in Haute-Corse, Cher and Lot say they do not understand why their departments have been placed in red.

Domestic violence in the time of Covid-19
Domestic violence has increased during the lockdown in France and other countries. French pharmacists use a code word for women who need help and who are accompanied by their spouse. The scheme in Spain inspired the one in France but several other countries have a similar situation, including the U.S.

Germany is doing a great job with Covid-19 in large part because Angela Merkel comes from a science background.

U.S.

Those who lost a great deal of income are suffering severely and need help but it is encouraging to know that most people in America understand the importance of restricted contact with others until a virus is found. The latest PBS/NPR/Marist poll found widespread support for keeping the U.S. economy closed.

Marion

Another of our American ex-pat/Democrats Abroad friends offered a bit of her story for us to share with our friends outside of France (just to tell a bit about our new friends in France). Her story is one to be very proud of as is much more of her life history. So without further ado I give you (a part of) Marion's story.

"I grew up in a little country town in NH. My aunt and uncle lived in a little town near to us and they had a lovely country home with a big yard, horses, and a stagecoach. They also had a large room under their staircase, that was bright and cheerful but, unless they showed it to you, you would not know it was there. I remember asking about it and was told that they had been part of the underground railroad. My uncle would drive his stagecoach towards the south, meet one coming up, put the slaves from that one into his, and drive back home. My aunt would welcome them, feed them, and then bring them into the hidden room to rest. When nighttime came, they loaded them back into the stagecoach and my uncle drove them up to Canada. There they were free! I was told that some southern leaders came to the town to try to find out who or if anyone was part of the underground railroad. They were furious. All the people in the town denied knowing of any such people there. (I was told that they all knew but were proud of what my relatives were doing so they did not cooperate. If even one person had, my relatives would have been killed.)"

Until next time - Be Safe, Be Careful and Be Kind.


During our walks the streets are usually empty.	Remains of Frenchy hotscotch.	Tree pollen count is very high right now.

Lots of greenery in Brittany springtime.	Because of the lockdown our back courtyard is overgrown.	Some of the weeds are starting to look like trees.