Coronavirus lockdown day 40

It was another slow day. Some editing, some voiceover work. Some editing of zoom meetings.

Reflecting a lot though on an email from overseas and how differently the lockdown is being handled around the world.

The Moscow Times says Russia’s curve is climbing steadily:

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2020/05/03/coronavirus-in-russia-the-latest-news-may-3-a69117

The curve is looking exponential.

1. Russia confirmed 10,633 new coronavirus infections Sunday, bringing the country’s official number of cases to 134,687 and marking a new one-day record increase. Russia is now the seventh most-affected country in terms of infections, having surpassed China, Turkey and Iran last week.
2. Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin has been diagnosed with coronavirus, he said during a video meeting with President Vladimir Putin broadcast on the state-run Rossiya 24 television channel Thursday.
3. President Vladimir Putin has extended the national “non-working” month through May 11 as Russia continued to see sharp daily rises in new coronavirus infections in recent days. Moscow’s coronavirus lockdown has also been extended until May 11.

You might have guessed I was planning to visit Moscow, hence my interest. That won’t be happening in the foreseeable future. I don’t know when international flights will start again, and can’t imagine how much they will cost… One less thing to worry about, I guess.

But more worringly, no-one really knows the full extent of the spread of the virus in Russia – or many other countries around the world. Here, there is much higher trust in the stats, and we are counting our lucky stars we live на краю света – on the edge of the world. Also the lockdown there has different implications from what I can tell: digital tracking for transport and phones; arrest and actual jail if you pass the virus on, or criticise the response.

Here, we are are own worst enemies: Fishermen getting stuck on islands in the middle of a river, people crowding beaches or takeaway joints. Level four was easy – there was no wiggle room. Now, people make their own assessment on safety. We’ll see in a week or so if we can go down to Level 2.