How are you all dealing with coronavirus and the restrictions many of us have to live

We are in Tier 4 now, although cases are not currently bad here I think they're anticipating a surge with Christmas and the new variant which spreads faster. It's confusing because there are areas with higher rates per 100,000 who are in Tier 3. I'm unsure why. Maybe it's hospital capacity.

I'm not happy about it but also think a pre-emptive strike is better than being reactive too late as has happened before.

We have a friend whose family have it and she's quite poorly with underlying conditions so hoping she'll be okay.

That's great news Deilla about your step dad improving and your mum managing to stay healthy.

My parents both got the Pfizer vaccine and due their booster next month, so grateful for that. On Monday the Oxford vaccine is being rolled out and supposed to be a game changer as it is massively more affordable and requires only regular refrigeration, the Pfizer one is difficult to store and transport because of exceptionally low temps required. So hopefully 2021 will be better for many of us especially the vulnerable groups.

Tonight is tough. I always hate NYE because it's a reminder of another failed year and I'm sitting here alone while the rest of the world celebrates.

Tonight it is also really sad that both my home country and my current home are showing how selfish people are Parties and fireworks despite the pandemic, violence and risks even though hospital staff are already overworked because of covid.

I want this night to be over quickly. I think I'm just going to crawl into bed alreasy.

For me Christmas time won’t ever be a happy time ever since I lost my two granddads, my two grandmas and my dear father at this time. Also I had the confirmation of inadequacy on a NYE. It was a nightmare so I cope with these celebrations as best as I can. It’s used to be so much stress around it and this is the last I need for my health, to be honest.
Before I took these celebrations very seriously and I felt the urge to be happy as the people I saw around me. I remember another touchy moment when my mum told me that my parents didn’t have time to buy our Christmas present (here, in Spain, the ones who bring presents for kids are three kings from Eastern on the night of January, 5th). That night shops are opened until midnight so they can sell last minute presents. When my mum asked me for going to the shops to choose the present I wanted, the Heaven fell down on my head. I thought, oh well, tomorrow morning I won’t have presents to unwrap like other kids have. It was so disappointed. I was a kid.

You are not alone, honey. I know it’s hard. Especially when you have to be stuck at home because of the pandemic and you don’t have a choice to celebrate or not.

Hugs, BreakForTheLight. I've never been much of a fan of New Year's Eve either.

And, @AzulOscuro. I don't get what it is about the supermarkets either. These days we've been ordering most things online and usually if we have to go, only one of us goes in. The last two times, my husband went alone and he said that he was amazed at the large groups going in together - mom, dad, kids, grandma. I mean is it really necessary for everyone to go to the store? Don't people realize it's a pandemic? Here there are capacity restrictions for retail, so there are lines to get in. Having 4-5 people from one family group waiting instead of 1 or 2 just makes the lines that much longer and increases possibility of exposure. I'm just glad our area is less populated than the capital. I saw footage of lines there before New Year's and Christmas and it was absolute chaos.

Our government announced a big surprise on Saturday, our municipality and various others in the Metropolitan Region were moved to phase 3. Nearly all were in more rural areas. Nothing was supposed to be announced until today. We keep being praised for a high level of testing and contact tracing (top 10 in the country). I wasn't even paying attention to the news. Instead a few friends that live where I used to live texted me about it. They are still stuck in phase 2 with weekend and holiday quarantines and not happy about it. I was just looking at the latest stats and it is true we are doing comparatively well.

I hope we stay this way. My birthday is coming up and it's on a weekend. I want to be able to at least take a drive to a brewery and go to the nursery to get those plants, finally. The brewery is by a lake, so it should be scenic. We're just going to buy some beer, I don't think they even have a restaurant and I'm not sure I am up for that yet. Cross your fingers, all! I should have been packing my bags for Portugal now, but, oh well, that's not going to happen.

I’m also curious as to why all the family have to go into a supermarket. I don’t like going shopping, only do it because I have to, so...

I think it was @BreakForTheLight who used first here the word covidiots or something similar. Unluckily, there are too much of this.
A young girl as Break being alone and not being able to travel to her country home for responsibility while others do what they please. I can’t cope with selfishness. To be honest.

I’m happy you are living in a non populated area. I had to do some stuff in the downtown and it was surprising how much people walked here and there without keeping distances. I had to wait for my partner and I decided to stand under a tree, under the rain because people didn’t care for my own personal distance. Sure they weren’t gonna approach to me without rushing into the tree. lol!

Hope you can celebrate your birthday going to the brewery. My last birthday I stayed alone at home. It was sad but I neither felt like celebrating anything.
I’m all into helping shops and bars to go ahead. They are having a very hard time and as long as we keep at safety mesures we are contributing with normality and bettering the Economy without risks.

When’s your birthday, @rechu?

@AzulOscuro. Yeah, circumstances kind of pushed us out this way, but it was definitely for the best with everything that has happened between the riots and Covid. Being in the capital has no appeal for me now. We have about 109,000 people, but spread out over approximately 240 square km of small population centers. The only place that can feel at all crowded is the little downtown where many stores and government buildings are, but it's nothing compared to other places. When I lived in greater Santiago our municipality had 101,000 people, but in only 11 square km and that area was less densely populated than many places that are full of high rise apartments and very little green space. 32 municipalities with 6 million people crammed in. It's just people, people and more people on the street, the malls, metro, buses, etc. It's hard to keep any sort of space in many areas.


My birthday is the 16th. The brewery doesn't have a restaurant, but we tried their beer recently and liked it, so we want to buy a bit more and support a local business. Restaurants can open with limited capacity if we are in phase 3, but I am not convinced to try eating out yet. The drive should be nice. The lake had sort of dried out due to the drought here, but we got some decent rain last winter and it is supposed to be better now.

We're in full lockdown as from today for at least 6 weeks. It's depressing but also inevitable.

I am trying to get my head around yet another set of rules, we are only supposed to leave to exercise once a day. That feels harsh to me. Exercise keeps me sane and I often go out for a run then later a walk or maybe two. I exercise alone or sometimes with my husband. I keep my distance from others. It honestly feels unfair but I think they are trying to hit hard to really get the message across.

Although it's quiet and people are seemingly complying in.my area many of my colleagues tell me (live in not so nice areas) that neighbours have been partying in groups over the holiday. I think this is what drives infection up not someone going for an outdoor walk or run alone.

we also went in to third national lockdown last night at midnight so that's us basically shut until easter. mcdonalds is staying open this time, be greatful for small liberties.. it was inevitable though.

@Discombobulated - At least you are luckier than us when we were in full lockdown. Here we were only given two permits to go out for all reasons combined a week. There was a dog walking permit, but only for 30 minutes and if you use your permits to walk the dog, then you can't go to the supermarket, pharmacy, etc. That was one of the worst thing about the lockdown, like you, I need to get out and move around and get some air. Walking helps my mental health. It was pretty stupid too, since exercise is good for health and the immune system in general, so you'd think it would be encouraged. Now that we have relative freedom, I am taking advantage of it to get out and walk around the neighborhood.


I hope the 6 weeks go by quickly for you and it isn't extended.

I agree that seems silly. Exercising outdoors is low risk. How would they even check this?

Over here currently we're only allowed to leave home with a good reason, but there is no limit on time or frequency. And there's actually talk of ending that rule because it's apparently unlawful. It's not like anyone actually stuck to it, this city does whatever it wants anyway.

Ugh, they approved a new permission for vacations that people in any area that is not quarantined can use. In the first 2 days, 45,000 people requested one. The bus stations are flooded with people. People being interviewed are saying that since they didn't see their families over the holidays, this is their chance. Most also said they have to go now because it might be rescinded. Basically, whatever surge that may have been avoided by people staying home for Christmas and New Year's was just pushed forward a few weeks.

A lot are going to the coast of the 5th region, which has only empty 20 ICU beds for the whole region. It's one of the most populated regions, with almost 2 million people. Pretty stupid. Given the situation, people might arrive for their vacation and then they announce lockdown in the next days. Sounds like a great vacation, doesn't it?


We are back under 3,000 new cases a day, but I don't see that lasting long.

Well, we hit 4,201 in the latest report, the most since June. So far, they haven't announced increased restrictions, but I imagine it's only a matter of time. We are still in phase 3 and have free movement during the weekends, so we are thinking of doing the drive to the brewery tomorrow. It may not be possible the following weekend. If they move us to phase 2, weekends are spent locked down.

Our governor under pressure revised the restrictions. Hospitals are overwhelmed and he opened up bars and restaurants again at a 50% capacity but you know they have no inclination to follow the rules. Theaters and gyms are open at 25% but again who’s making sure? There were restaurants that opened up in defiance of the restrictions so I don’t expect them to follow the rules. Americans are such Duder heads. Can’t think about the good of all, only me me me.

Nammu - here one of the places that has had the worst incidence of cases is Punta Arenas, a city in the far south of Patagonia. They were in lockdown (phase 1) for a while, but the situation wasn't really improving. It's pretty cold down there even now, so it seems to be a lot of people meeting together inside that keeps the rates high. Businesses got sick of the restrictions and restaurants began to open anyways. What did our government do? Send them into phase 2. I guess in a way it was to encourage them to do outdoor dining, which is allowed during the week in phase 2. However that does set the precedent that you will be rewarded by simply ignoring the restrictions.

Yeah they rewarded the businesses that were open when there was no indoor dining allowed by putting them on the local news where they got free publicity and got to espouse their me, me , me agenda

I'm heading for another breakdown. I can't deal with the isolation anymore. Finding it hard to motivate myself to do anything at all.

Feel like the world has forgotten about me. I sent a happy new year message to a former co worker and never got an answer. Another former co worker I was hoping to remain friends with also no longer keeps in touch. It's always me texting. Sometimes I get an answer, sometimes I don't. The one person at my new job who I "talked" to the most is leaving for another department next month.

I'm trying to work on my self confidence and self acceptance but the loneliness is killing me. And everyone abandoning me doesn't exactly make me feel very worthy :/

I'm sorry to read you are struggling with feelings of abandonment.

I too have noticed people often don't get back to me, or at least not in a timely fashion. I think the whole situation has affected how we all relate to each other. People have often retreated into their own worlds. It isn't a measure of your worth, rather they themselves are preoccupied.

I myself have noticed I have retreated a little. It's that I feel I don't want too much closeness, perhaps because it actually takes a lot of energy to be positive and I feel like with others I ought to be positive and not bring them down. It's not because I don't care about others, or value them. It's easier to write here because it's anonymous and I feel I can be honest rather than trying to be positive when I'm not feeling it.

I hope writing here helps you too.

It will get better, it's rocky for many of us right now though. Take care.

BreakForTheLight. I'm sorry you're having such a tough time. Hugs!


Well, I was right. Phase 3, it was nice knowing you. We go back to phase 2 two days before my birthday. I am so sick of this. It's impossible to have any semblance of order or to be able to make plans when we get switched to different phases constantly. It's exhausting. My birthday will be just a barbecue and nice bottle of wine for me and my husband.

Here, we are facing to more restrictions after Christmas but it won’t be as the totally lockdown we faced to last Spring. This was so terrible hard. We had to stay at home and we weren’t even allowed to go out to do exercise. Not living the best time because of my issues and this terrible cold weather, either and I have my hopes on the next Spring, being different and lively, conversely to the previous one.

Said that, go on your situation. You’re valuable. It’s objective. I know we need some validation from the outside but the main will come from yourself.
I know it’s a tough situation but probably this coworker of yours who didn’t reply your message, doesn’t deserve your attention. Unless (s)he is shy ir have AvPD or going also through problems, (s)he doesn’t deserve your attention.

Had a deeply discouraged conversation with an ex-coworker, now my friend, and it was about how superficial relations among coworkers may be.
I’m sure there are exceptions to the rule. I don’t understand why it is like that, either but it seems it’s right.
Focus on your friends from your place of birth country and those people who return your messages, also people you know online and you see are worthy.

Don’t forget that there’s nothing bad in you. There are many people who also feel alone and what it’s worse, they feel alone while being around people. The culture we are immersed in, favours this.

I feel lucky to be in this thread for many reasons but having your participation here it’s already much more than enough. Your incredible sensitivity is already an priceless present.

I only wanted to say thank you.

Of course, you can vent here and Break can vent here and I can also vent here. We are here ones for others.

16th December. I took note of that day. You are gonna celebrate this date with the guy from your life, your husband. I’m not a friend to celebrate a birthday before it takes place but always there’s a good moment to celebrate with your husband. Don’t have doubt that you will be our queen this day here.

January 16th, actually, but you were close. It's next Saturday, so you can send me some good vibes then.

Our government has lost its mind. Now, for areas under quarantine the permits to go out only last two hours, twice a week. They used to be 3 hours We are currently only affected by the permits on the weekend in phase 2, and the lines to get into stores due to capacity restrictions are not so bad here. 25 municipalities enter into quarantine on the 14th. Some are urban areas, where you just know there will be huge lines. Two hours is not much to go to the store, park, wait in line, shop, pay, load stuff in your car and head home if the lines are long. I have friends in Santiago that have said even three hours even wasn't enough during quarantine.

And, now they have said that items determined to be non-essentials cannot be sold in supermarkets or other stores allowed to be open during quarantine. This was discussed once before and it was decided that there is no way to decide what may be essential for someone. Things like clothes/shoes and appliances are on the non-essential list. What happens if a necessary home appliance like a washing machine dies, for example? What about a kid that outgrows their shoes? Online orders will be allowed, but not everyone has internet or a bank account or knows how to order online, especially the elderly. Many stores only have delivery service for limited geographic areas as well. My husband and I have been told we are out of delivery range by many websites, and we aren't that remote. We do order many things online, and deliveries are taking longer because of higher demand. If you now force people to order online, things will just get slower.

There's another new rule that restaurants and bars in areas where they are permitted to open cannot play music. The only good thing is that there is a special permit to exercise, but it can only be used between 7 AM and 8:30 AM.


I think people are really going to reach a breaking point soon. Quarantine fatigue is real and it just seems like they pile restriction on restriction without thinking things through.

New rule in my country: areas with 200 or more cases per 100.0000 can be "shut in", people wouldn't be allowed to travel more than 15 km away from their home.

My area is at 199,9 so we're still good

Wow, BreakForThe Light. Hang in there!!


Get this! Our municipality is in the second most restrictive phase and our active case rate per 100,000 is 65, which seems comparatively low when I see the rates in other places. We had been better, yeah, but still.


There has been discussion among expats online that the vaccine rollout seems VERY slow, stuck at about 10,000 healthcare workers. There is suspicion that half the government is heading out on vacation and basically plans to do nothing until they get back. There was a lot of news about the first vaccines, but now nothing. One guy in an area that is about to go into strict quarantine posted this: "Just had time to-put a-lot of us back to Phase 1 before they turned-off the lights and went on vacation." It kind of feels that way.

Thank you so much for your supportive and kind words @AzulOscuro

Oh my so many going through so much right now - I feel numb. I spoke to my sister by phone last week and she feels numb.

We hit record deaths today nationwide. It is following the horrific high infection rates of several weeks, there is always a lag. It's a mixture of Christmas mixing and the new Kent variant which is more contagious. The health service is struggling, the staff are struggling. I'm just staying home when I can. I walk or jog where it's quiet alone.

I do better at work but there are risks involved, although I am careful and wear a mask - I work in a supermarket. My job has kept me sane.

Trying to keep hope, they are opening vaccination centres and moving to 24/7 appointments. I just want my vulnerable H to get his asap. Mine won't be until later this year but I am unlikely to get very sick and die.

How do we heal from this. I feel like we will need to honour the dead and health workers.