Now that I can go somewhere I really don’t want to. I’ve been safely tucked inside my bubble for 14 days and I don’t want to go out into the world. Jay has no choice, he’s got to take his rotation at the office, it wouldn’t be fair not to. I have a choice too, we could have nothing but pasta, frozen veggies, canned goods and hot dogs for the next week or I can suck it up and go grocery shopping - I have a PC grocery pick up scheduled for Friday of this week (April 3rd) and then Wednesday of next week (April 8th) and then Saturday (April 11th)..For the Friday and Wednesday orders they were final, once you put them in you weren’t allowed to add to them so I’ve got all our standard fruits and veggies in both those orders. In the one for the 11th they went back to allowing you to add to the order until prior to the order date but now its 3 days in advance they close the editing so I have to make any amendments to my order by Wed April 8th. But now I can’t set up multiple orders, I have to wait until the one on April 11th has been picked up before I can set up a new order...and who knows when that will be. Right now they’re about 13 days out. I’ll try to avoid going to the store as much as I can.
I texted Sarah this morning that I can’t go to Costco. Baby steps. I don’t want to go to Newmarket and touch everything there and so I’ll go to Zehrs today and I don’t even want to do that. I went at 9am hoping it wouldn’t be too busy and it wasn’t, not compared to usual but I don’t usually pay attention to when I’m going I just go when I need something. I usually go every day - now I think I have enough that I won’t have to go again until well into mid-April because of the other deliveries above of fruits and veggies. I’m not an anxious person, but this is making me nervous - I don’t even know why, I’m not worried about getting sick and, honestly, something similar went through the girls hockey team early Feb that had similar symptoms and I got it coming home from the Erie tournament so who knows if we all had it already. I’m more worried that this is going to be so prolonged and in case we haven’t been exposed already bringing it unnecessarily into the house now.
Zehrs was VERY well organized. They have one door marked for IN and one marked for OUT. They have arrows on the floor with green tape so that everyone flows through the aisles going in one direction (to avoid face to face meetings), lots of people were aware of distancing and just waited until you were out of the way instead of coming into your space to pick the fruit or veg from the bin beside you. There was lots of stock of everything, there was even toilet paper - 1 per customer. They’ve taken the big packs of toilet paper, the 24 packs with 4 x 6 individual packs inside and separated them into smaller packs and are selling them for $3.59 instead of selling them as 24 packs.
I bought one, just in case, the only thing they still don’t have are wipes of any kind. I got a club pack of hamburger and sausages so that I can make sauce for lasagna. I’ll have to add the fresh pasta and some cheese to my order pick up on the 11th, for now they’re in the freezer. The deli section they have an “in” line as well, they’ve moved the racks of bread that are usually up against the display forward so you can’t come too close to the counter and you order everything you want and when your order is finished they put it on the counter at the very end and you pick it up. They have check out also organized, they have every other row open, the cashiers have plexiglas partitions in front of them, they have a standard line with spacing outlined on the floor and then ask two carts at a time only to line up at the conveyor. I was very impressed. I had my phone, keys and wallet in one pocket and my credit card in the other pocket and told the girls if they need me to text because I can reply on my watch but I won’t be answering my phone while I’m in the grocery store or on the way back.
I picked up a few things for my parents, they have 2 days left of isolation and dropped it into their garage, then stood talking to my Mom for a few minutes keeping our distance. Then when I got home I wiped down the entire car, anything I would have touched, after I wiped my hands off.
The girls cleaned their rooms up and I took them over to Julia’s. There is a press conference happening now that I can’t stream but they’re expecting that school is out until at least May, which we assumed.
In the news today, according to CBC:
Ontario closed all parks and outdoor recreation, public and private including beaches, sports fields and green spaces and extended the Emergency Order for an additional 2 weeks. Uxbridge Township had already done that a few days ago (closed the parks) and its been patrolled by police and Township employees with our Mayor, Dave Barton, advising that fines and charges will be levied against anyone not complying to those closures.
In NY a Navy hospital ship has arrived with 1,000 beds to relieve pressure on the city’s overwhelmed hospitals.
Canada had 1M people apply for EI last week as people are laid off. Air Canada laid off almost 16,000 workers this week.
City of Toronto has cancelled all event permits until June 30th.
I got the video to work of the press conference but missed the beginning:
Ford-
They’re pausing payments on OSAP for 6 months.
They won’t allow students to be held back so everyone will move on to the next Grade in September. They’re working on a strategy for the Graduating student going into University.
Lecce- Education Minister
May 4th is the next date for school closures. Further extension may happen given the fluidity of the COVID-19 situation. Extension would be done, without reservation, at the medical advice of the Chief Medical Officer Dr Williams.
Aim is to reestablish the teacher-student relationship. Teacher led learning. Requiring final report cards, so work will be graded. Salvage part of the year, be flexible to respond to the fluid reality.
Keeping them engaged in learning at home. Paper or electronic based.
Supporting students to Graduate and receive their diplomas. No barriers to accessing post secondary pathways.
Distributing laptops as needed to get technology to those who need it, getting support to children with education challenges.
Mental health challenges are affecting many children - supporting KidsHelpPhone, making psychologist and psychotherapists available to students.
Ross Romano - Post Secondary sector.
Initiatives for graduation and academic success, safety and success are the primary concerns.
6 month deferral of all OSAP payments both federal and provincial portions interest free.
Cash injection of $25M directed to the 45 post secondary colleges and universities and indigenous schools to be used as the institution sees fit.
Online platform, importance for supports to be able to effectively provide continuity of academic success to complete this year. Integrity of the degrees, exams, proctoring. E-Campus learning will provide guarantee to all post secondary institutions that degrees that will be maintained with the utmost integrity. Paid for by the Ministry to relief that burden from the Institutions - cost is $30-$50 per student per hour for exams if the Institution were to have to pay for it themselves.
There have been 29 COVID-19 related deaths within 22 long term care facilities in Ontario. $243M is going to long term care homes to be used for additional cleaning and supplies. There is one long term care facility in Bobcaygeon that has had 9 deaths of their original 65 residents with 24 staff testing positive at this point. More residents in homes are showing symptoms of the virus but haven’t been tested yet - again showing that our numbers are reporting low.
I checked in with Leanne, they finished their 14 days of isolation 2 days before us. She went back to work, she works in the NICU with micro premmies doing nutrition at Centenary Hospital in Scarborough. Dwayne is working from home and they hired a babysitter to watch the kids from 8 - 2 everyday so that he can actually work..from home. She said its nice to have some routine back. She’s nervous about the grocery store too but doesn’t mind being at work as they have had infectious disease policy drilled into their head daily for 17 years. She doesn’t work in a high-risk area but still strips her clothes as soon as she gets home and leaves her shoes in the car. Other than wearing a mask at work its business as usual.
Julia goes back to work tomorrow at Butternut Manor, a retirement residence in Uxbridge, she’s the Business Manager there so has an office that’s isolated from the residents and staff. Avery is also scheduled to work, she works in Activities and Reception and interacts with the residents and staff for her job so I don’t think we’ll be seeing them for the near future.
We had flank steak, twice baked mashed potatoes and salad for dinner, played a game of cards and went to bed.
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