by Yesterday we reached a balmy 20 degrees; today we topped out at 8 and the sun hardly poked through the cloud all day. Perfect coronavirus weather, in other words. I popped out to fill up my water bottles from the well, but was rarely in danger of being within fifty metres of another soul, let alone two. High winds and even blizzards are forecast for large swathes of Romania in the next two days. Bring it on.
Romania has now seen its first two fatalities from coronavirus, both of whom already had very serious medical conditions, including a man with terminal cancer. Today’s percentage increase in cases was very similar to yesterday’s, although they did test significantly more people just prior to today’s update. (The 66 new cases is identical to New Zealand’s total number.)
Some good news: Timișoara is rapidly becoming the Romanian epicentre for people getting rid of coronavirus. Of the 64 patients cured of the virus so far, two-thirds have been treated in Timișoara. Nobody is quite sure why. (My guess is just that a lot of the early cases came from this part of the country.)
The Italian death toll rose by another 650 in the most recent daily update. That’s a horrific number, but maybe, just maybe, the lockdown is beginning to have an impact. Spain saw almost 400 additional deaths, a truly awful number.
I’ve been watching Youtube videos from John Campbell, a British doctor. They are extremely informative. He gives daily updates on the global situation, as well as practical advice on how to properly wash your hands, whether to take medicine to reduce a fever, the benefits of vitamin D, why this virus spreads more readily than the SARS virus we saw in 2003, what R0 factors mean and why they’re important, and much, much more. It’s a veritable trove of information.
I didn’t get through to my brother last night. When he rang me back this morning, I asked if he was down the pub. We wondered when (and where) we might see our parents again.
I’ve been working on the first part of my book. I’ve been trying to make it a bit light-hearted to attract the reader’s attention, but as I’ve been writing in Romanian I’m not sure if my humour has worked. I need to arrange a meeting with my Romanian teacher.
