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

All the coved idiots went to Florida for spring break, I’m all for putting a giant cage over Florida and letting them all stay there until the rest of us have been vaccinated

Good idea, Nammu. Kind of like that old Simpsons episode!


What a joke. The government backed up somewhat on the no permits to go out on quarantine weekends, saying it's only for the next weekend. On the news this evening, they had this poor guy that runs the police website that you have to use to request a permit trying to explain the new rules. I felt kind of badly for him. It gets more confusing by the day. They had everyday people asking questions. One woman said that on the weekends she goes to bring food and medication to an elderly family member who has limited mobility. The guy went into this 3 step process she would have to go through just to be able to legally do that this coming weekend, including getting a health certificate for the family member and showing they are related, some stupidity like that. Every question asked he had to spend probably five minutes explaining all the different rules that apply. It's gotten ridiculous. How the hell are you supposed to keep track of it all?


The Health Minister and Undersecretary recommended using online ordering with delivery to buy food and supplies if you need something. Of course, they live in the the rich areas of the capital (which were spared quarantine). All the major supermarkets deliver right to their doorsteps, unlike in many areas, like mine. And what about the people that don't have a computer or debit card?

That's appalling, to suggest online shopping while restricting access to shops. Over here we had a mass expansion of online supermarket shopping capacity - because a year ago the stores just did not have capacity to deal with the surge in demand. You could not get a slot. It took a while for the supermarkets to gear up, logistics cannot change overnight. We have better capacity now but most people still shop in store.

I feel your government is not being scientific with these restrictions. It's probably not impossible to get covid in a supermarket but it's not the riskiest thing. With distancing and masks interactions should be minimal. I may be wrong but supermarket workers have not got sick in large numbers, and when we do it's most likely from our colleagues who we spend all day with. That's what I've observed.

As you say, a better vaccine would impact infections far more than these permits. Are hospitalizations going down? Are deaths going down?

A hard choice, Break!

Hahahaha! I have seen these @ssholes on TV. My god, they were such an amount! I guess people who do live in Florida must be complaining about the whole situation.
Here, in Madrid, people are complaining a lot because each day arrive here 9 planes to Madrid with youngest from different European countries to go to parties. As soon as bars and pubs close, they go to private parties.
People who live in these neighbourhoods are recording and reporting but it seems police have its hands tied. Once, they come and cross the airport...

Just as a little exercise I went to the site of Jumbo, one of the biggest supermarket chains here. Our region, the most populous, has 52 municipalities. Jumbo only delivers to 25 of them and for 2 it only delivers to specific areas. Other regions have even fewer delivery zones. But the Health Ministry acts like EVERYONE can order online.


Then, of course it's harder for small businesses to set themselves up for delivery and ordering from them is not always easy. During the last quarantine when our car was having problems I ordered by WhatsApp from a guy that sold eggs, dairy and some other basic staples. Another delivered vegetables like that. The egg guy is probably still doing it, but once we were out of quarantine I tried to order from the vegetable guy and he was no longer in that business. Even locating those businesses took research. Then, I had to get them to send me a price list. I'd put my order into an excel to calculate the cost and text it to them, then I had to transfer the money. It wasn't exactly easy, but those were the sorts of options that were available to us.


All of the street fairs where people go to mainly on the weekend to stock up on produce and other items will be shut down. They make most of their money on the weekends. A few of them were being interviewed on the news, and they enumerated the challenges to try to convert to a delivery model. First of all, the street fairs are sort of informal, so they can't even get a permit to be out and about making deliveries during lockdown. Then, they'd need a vehicle, they probably need to hire someone to help out, etc.


Of course, then there are the extra charges, which can be a financial hardship for someone earning minimum wage or on a fixed pension.

I agree that it doesn't seem to be following the science. It doesn't seem like grocery stores and markets are huge infection points. I mean, why is the weekend more dangerous to shop than during the week? Is the virus nicer during the week? It seems like they are completely out of ideas and, probably, trying to distract people from the fact that the vaccine doesn't seem to be helping. Everyone's focusing energy and outrage on the new restrictions instead. ICUs are close to full in most places and deaths aren't coming down. We recently had a day of over 200 deaths, which is the first time I remember such a high number. Every time the government announces another nonsensical policy, they lose more credibility and more people think, "what's the point of following the stupid rules?"


People are completely mocking the government in the comments to news articles and on social media. There are memes of cowboys (in full cowboy dress) on their horses with UberEats backpacks on their backs, saying "this is how we do delivery out in the country."

Oh, and now no one is sure what to do about parents who share custody and need to transfer the kids between households. They won't be able to this coming weekend. If they switch to during the week, they use up one of their two weekly permits each time. And, of course, the government may backpedal and keep the stricter weekend restrictions, since they change their minds all the time.

Oh, and these days I am starting to feel like, either:

#1 – I am like Alice in Wonderland and I’ve fallen down the rabbit hole into some sort of alternative universe where nothing makes sense.
#2 – I am on one of those hidden camera shows where bizarre things happen and finally at the end, the host shows up to tell me it was all a joke.
#3 – Our leaders are testing us with this stupidity to see how far they can push before there is a reaction.

https://twitter.com/alejandocs/statu...40803833024515

@rechu it isn't a good sign if hospitalizations and deaths are rising. That should not be happening if the vaccine is effective. I think you are astute and very wise in your analysis.

It must feel like you are being gaslighted.

My state has extended the lockdown even longer than the rest of the country - until April 24th. And we're getting a strict 5 day lockdown during Easter. I don't even know what to say anymore. It makes no sense at all. 5 days isn't going to make a difference except in making people miserable.

@Discombobulated - Yeah I am starting to feel like that. I know that vaccines are supposed to be most effective some days after the second dose. Still the US, UK and Israel that all started around the same time as us are seeing better numbers even though many people haven't gotten a second dose. Here it's not improving. 95% of ICU beds are full. That is as bad as we were last June-July with no one vaccinated at all. Part of the "explanation" we are given is that it's more or less the elderly that have been vaccinated so far and since they are still mainly staying home we aren't seeing the impact. That's not so true. Health workers, who are of all ages started in December. Some of the first ones got Pfizer, but then they started giving them Sinovac too in January. My husband and most of his co-workers got their second vaccine a few weeks ago so are considered fully vaccinated. Most are in their 30s to 50s. Same with teachers. More recently they got some Pfizer and gave it to teachers but many of the first, including several teachers I know did not get Pfizer. I'd have to look up the statistic I saw but it's about 1/3 under 65 and 2/3 over.


From statements last month, this was going to be the week we see real changes in the deaths and ICU bed usage. I'm waiting but not optimistic.

@BreakForThe Light. Wow, another month? Nothing makes sense anymore. Here or there. I think both our governments are lost. I heard Merkel talking about a new strain on the international news this morning. I'm not sure if one of the existing variants have arrived there or if it's something else. I am sure they will spring an Easter surprise on us. I am not sure what it will be, but I am convinced it will be poorly communicated and make no sense. That is ALL I am sure of now.

@rechu I looked up a world graph of vaccination and according to the data Chile is leading, you're right something is not adding up here.

It's true variants can be different in different countries at different times. I think the UK (Kent) variant is hitting Europe right now. The vaccines supposedly do work against the variants but less effectively. The one our government seem most worried about is the Brazilian variant.

We are being told that world wide eradication is not realistic and we will have to live with some level of Covid for decades. Ugh. What exactly that will mean for us on a day to day basis has yet to be explained. One things certain the punitive measures cannot last. I would hope we will see an increase in hygiene practices but working in a store with the public I can say a good portion of people are still not hygiene aware (coughing with uncovered mouths!!)

From what you tell us here though it seems to me that more effective vaccines are essential in every single country. How else can we end the cycle of infection.

I was looking at the vaccination statistics and we have vaccinated 5.889.862 people. 3.078.772, or 52% have had the second dose. That's more than I would have assumed with a second dose.

Something really bad I just realized is that they have increased the number of ICU beds since last June/July. So, that would mean there are actually more people in the ICU now than then. I found this graph:Dr. Said y pandemia: “La situacion es lejos mas grave que en junio” . Scroll down to where it says. Gráfico camas críticas disponibles (verde) y nivel de ocupación (morado) The green shows open ICU beds. The purple is occupied beds. It's kind of weird that the total number of ICU beds went down in October-November. I guess they were using those beds for other purposes at this time. We had low case numbers then, so they were probably catching up on other surgeries that were put off and using those beds for post-op patients and such since they needed fewer ICU beds. Anyways, you can see clearly that there are more ICU beds now than June/July of last year and the occupation rate is really high. The sliver of green is smaller than June/July of last year.


I was reading today that the Health Ministry now says we will need to get up to 4,000 total ICU beds by April 6th. So, supposedly the vaccine should be reducing ICU use any day now, but we need to significantly increase the number of beds in the next few weeks? Looking at the graph there are about 3,400 total beds now. They think we will need another 600? That is a huge increase, especially when you think that it's not just the beds, it's the additional staffing. Where would that even come from.


Some congressman was on TV just saying that the first dose of the vaccine helps reduce ICU admissions. I wanted to scream at the TV. If that's the case, how to you explain what I just wrote above? Why will 13.7 million people out of 19 million be strictly locked down as tomorrow?


Yep. I think without a better vaccine, Chile is not going to get out of this any time soon. And I do wonder what the future of living with the virus looks like as you are saying, @Discombobulated.

I am pretty much decided I am not even going to bother with the Sinovac vaccine when it's my turn.

Here we go again. The news in Germany: "we're at the beginning of the third wave, hospitals will be full, lots of people are going to die, blahblah, horror, death......"

They're turning into the boy who cried wolf. The more they come up with these dramatic statements, the less people that are going to believe them.

Again, the people who don't care will continue not to care. Sensible people are already being careful. Those in the middle might be pushed to the not-caring side if we keep hearing this. It's exhausting and I also think we're getting desensitised by being overwhelmed with bad news. It goes in one ear, out the other.

You about summed up how I feel and what I am observing here, @BreakForTheLight.

Then we have the Health Minister with his fake sad eyes saying how pained he is about having to declare quarantines. High level government officials are the least affected by the quarantines. They have their high paying jobs and special permissions that give them the freedom of movement that they take from the rest of us. He and the other top people in the Health Ministry need to resign and take Piñera with them. They have failed miserably. Their delayed reaction to the Brazilian variant has essentially been closing the barn door after the horse has bolted, as the saying says. They will only say that 45 cases of the Brazilian variant have been found. What they refuse to say is how many samples they sequenced, 100, 1,000, 100,000? It makes a huge difference. I am leaning towards a small number of samples and it's very prevalent. As always, they are probably lying by omission to cover up their incompetence.

And the stupid idea of not letting anyone use a permit to go out this coming weekend has had predicted bad results, as always. What a clown show! Several friends tried to grocery shop and the stores were absolute chaos. I'm glad my husband went earlier this week. When I went to the front gate to get a package that the security guard had signed for, he told me that someone from the minimarket across the main road had stopped by to say they had gotten a permit to do delivery on days where we are fully locked down with no permit. I don't anticipate needing anything, but I took note of it just in case.

The National Comptroller's Office just announced an investigation of the President's blind trust. That could get interesting!!

The state announced our first Brazilian variant, found in a person who has not traveled and who lives in one of the least populated areas of the state. If it's there, it must be everywhere. I assumed they were testing all samples for variants but apparently they are only testing 5%. The new theory is that our case counts have not dropped because these variants are already spreading throughout the community.

Yeah, if it's making it to remote, less populated areas, you can be sure it's probably everywhere.

We had 7,626 new cases in yesterday's report. It just keeps getting worse, not better. There are predictions that by the time of the elections we will be at over 8,000 new cases a day. Fortunately, I checked the replacement poll workers list and neither me more my husband were chosen. That's a relief.

The Health Ministry is now requiring a hotel quarantine for arrivals from abroad, but it's only for 5 days. I don't know how much that is going to help. After that, it's basically an honor system to complete the rest of the quarantine. They text you to ask about symptoms and they can show up where you indicate you are saying, but I get the impression that those checks are infrequent. You'd have to have really bad luck for them to come by right when you left your quarantine location.

There was a news report today from the Vega Central, the largest market here to see who was offering the delivery that the government seems to think that every small business can offer. Only 1% of the stalls were open for delivery orders.

The traveler quarantines here have been an absolute joke. I guess any questions you had about the effectiveness of the vaccines they are using in Chile have been answered by these rising case counts despite a majority of the population having been vaccinated.

Someone wants to meet me about possible work. Indoors, in a restaurant, ugh.

Was planing to go to my daughter’s for Easter since mum had both her shoes and I have one. But with the rise in covid cases, now I’m not sure 🤔

Yes I understand the reticence Nammu. I don't feel we are out of the woods yet either although most of the elderly are vaccinated now.

I haven't felt our government have made a good job of the handling of this so far. The most frustrating thing for me is the inconsistency. One minute they are telling us to go inside restaurants and offering 50% discounts on indoor dining (yes really! When indoors is how the virus spreads!) and telling home workers to return to the office - then cases shot up, deaths too sadly. Now we have the steady slow staged release out of lockdown 3 and our Prime Minister is already going off script and saying people should "make a stab at getting back to the office".... when offices are proven to be one of the places the virus spreads most easily and not many under 50s (the majority of the work force) are vaccinated even once yet (in fact the supply issue means it will be months before most of us get our first shot). This is a day after he was warning us about a possible 3rd wave from Europe. Incredible. Does he never learn? It appears not.

The most frustrating thing for me is that so many countries have had weak and foolish leaders throughout this pandemic. Boris Johnson comes high up on that list.

I try not to get riled but afraid I don't always succeed. So many of my friends have stopped following the news reports because they can't stand reading or seeing anything to do with our leader. I can't seem to stop myself, I feel like I need to stay up to date but maybe I ought to follow their example and stop reading about it.

Haha, I said mum has both her shoes! I’m sure you all knew Imeant shots! Although having both shoes is a good thing.

Two shoes, two shots, both sound like the 2021 must haves It really is hard to decide what to do. We experienced a lull in cases here but now they are creeping up again.


I also am frustrated at the way restaurants have been handled. We were also encouraged to 'support local restaurants.' I have to stand outside in line to go into a grocery store, I can't go to the library, but I can eat mask free in a restaurant? How does that make any sense? This kind of mixed messaging is part of why people balk at mandates. Thinking about all of it does make me angry so maybe it is better to skip the news!

I thought it was some kind of metaphor at first

Haha, Nammu!

Here things are very dark feeling. It doesn’t help that the day is gray and foggy.


The other day, the Health Minister came out to say that the President should go down in history due to his great handling of the pandemic. How can anyone take him seriously after comments like that when you consider the current situation here? We say here, he’s a “lamebotas” bootlicker, like a brownnoser to the President. Then he tried to backpedal on his comments that we would be seeing improvements by now; but doubled down on the idea that we will reach heard immunity by June. Something that specialists not tied to the government think is unlikely. He continues to say that people are “immunized” by the vaccine, not “vaccinated”, when this vaccine often doesn’t confer immunity. There was another doctor on the national TV channel saying people will develop immunity. I guess being the national channel, he has to toe the government’s line too. The lying and gaslighting gets worse every day.

I almost feel badly for this guy on the forum for expats. He really seems to want to buy into the idea that the country is going to vaccinate itself out of this with Sinovac. He said he was looking at the numbers and there was a slight decrease in deaths among the 80+ population who were among the first to be vaccinated. I am not sure if that shows anything. It may just as likely be because of the constant ratcheting up of the restrictions over the last five weeks or so. If they are resulting in reduced mobility, that means that it is mainly younger people in essential jobs that are out and about. Different jobs have different exposure risks, but I’d say there is always some, plus many have to go to work on public transportation. We are seeing more people in their 40s and 50s, prime working age, in ICUs and dying. Many were also vaccinated in early- to mid-February because of their essential job. If you are over 80, you are probably retired and in quarantine, which is almost all the country, and only have your limited 2 times a week permits to go out. That may contribute to lowered deaths for older people and higher deaths for younger people lately.

I was reading about the case of Israel to sort of compare. They started vaccinating with Pfizer on December 19th. In January cases were still going up, but early February, they were seeing notable declines in cases. Here we started with health workers in the last week ofDecember. The first people got Pfizer, but those were probably only 20,000 doses. Then they shifted to Sinovac. More massive vaccinations started at the beginning of February, which are almost all Sinovac and a bit of Pfizer here and there. If we were following the trend in Israel, we should be seeing some sort of decline by now. Instead, ICUs are almost all full. Some regions have only 3% of their beds available. Unlike prior waves, the problem is that it’s bad everywhere. In the past, the virus sort of moved around by region so they could send people to hospitals in areas that had fewer cases. We have had over 7,000 new cases for the last 4 days and the hospital in Valparaíso, one of the major cities here, had to acquire 2 refrigerated containers because their morgue is full. Articles discussing the “Chilean paradox” of high vaccinations and no improvement in the numbers never seem to indicate that we are mainly using Sinovac, they say a mix of Pfizer and Sinovac, giving the impression their use is more or less equal.

One of my main concerns is what will happen if we don’t reach the promised herd immunity by June. How will people react if the government is still mandating lockdowns and masks and the virus is still making the rounds? Sadly, I think we could see protests that make October 2019 look like child’s play.

After 2 days of not being able to request permits to go out, the website that issues the permits crashed this morning.

Well, I thought it was an idiom of the English language. Anyway, I understood what you meant. lol!
I have no shoes. I’m bare feet. And I’m beginning to be worried because of this.

It makes sense. lol!