The COVID-19 Pandemic: What's happening in your part of the world?

[RVR II]

It's probably past time to have a dedicated thread for this CoronaVirus topic..
Mods & Members, feel free to move posts from other threads here.

Got reports that a student at our local Winthrop University had a confirmed case. Had several students come into the post office where I work.
Talked with the station manager and he read an email stating all Postal employees are considered 'essential' which is good and bad.. We will still have jobs but we are all placed at higher risk due to our frequent exposure to the public.
Makes it real difficult to stay safe around here   

[wihogfan]

Wife's company- everyone laid off receiving regular email updates from CEO. CEO having regular conference calls with the few people still working.

My company- CEO had a company-wide conderence call at the beginning of February where he talked about the virus. Insists there is nothing that has changed since then that merits any kind of company-wide communition and that if employees had questions or concerns that should have asked them on his last call.

[goflyblind]

the university has been closed for nearly two weeks now. stores (except grocery and pharmacy) and restaurants (except delivery) have been closed for a week and a half. finding regularly updated english news has been frustrating. apparently people haven't been doing social distancing well, so the government might implement stricter rules. i've only left my apartment three times (once for a walk, two grocery trips) in the past two weeks.

[RVR II]

Our university has been closed for over 2 weeks as well and this student was unknowingly a carrier for possibly a month so it's unknown just how much he could have spread this virus 
A lot of postal customers ask us daily what we're doing differently and a lot of us will wear those blue latex gloves but the ones in stock are too small for my hands so I just use hand sanitizer at the counter where I work and wash my hands when I can get away from the counter but still the close proximity while conducting transactions puts us at the greatest risk

[wihogfan]

We were able to secure enough disfectant wipes to last 2 or 3 weeks. Have a schedule where every area gets wiped down once an hour. Some things (front door handle, copy machine) get wiped down before and after every use. Not allowing any outside visitors. Truck drivers have a small canopy outside and communicate via intercom when dropping off or picking up. Packages via UPS, USPS, and Fedex being delivered outside. Every package including all mail sprayed with lysol and sits for an hour before being opened.

[stansimpson]

Our company gave us all Chromebooks to work from home. It's gone well. We're very fortunate that the companies we work with have streaming/online sales in place to keep things going while maintaining safety for everyone since ~90% of them shut their doors.

Fun story: Friday evening during work hours, I got permission to go back to the office and get my lunches that I accidentally left there. I was running low on food and wanted to avoid public grocery stores. Got some extra outerwear including gloves, went there, found an instruction sign for UPS/visitors on the door, went in, and grabbed my food. They give us free sodas, so I grabbed a few of those and a bottle of coffee creamer that is going to expire soon. This is the moment it felt truly apocalyptic. The whole "raid" reminded me of The Mist, especially the convenient store scene.

Supplies are running low again, so I'll be stopping by Walmart tomorrow. They close at 8:30pm now, and I get off work at 6pm. Should be interesting.

Aside from all this, my wife left out a full glass of water next to our one computer yesterday. You can guess what happened. Will be ordering a new one soon. Right now, we're relegated to our phones and will use my work computer if absolutely necessary. Really puts a damper on things, I must say.

[wihogfan]

When word of toilet paper hoarding started in other areas of the country and I needed to buy toilet paper, I bought twice what I'd normally buy and despite the shortage not having hit here yet when I did it, I kind of felt guilty about it at the time. No longer feel guilty. Would have run out by now if I hadn't bought extra and it's close to impossible to find.

[goflyblind]

UPDATE: Poland brings in new restrictions in battle against coronavirus
 24.03.2020 15:19
   
Poland has ramped up its battle against the coronavirus, announcing that from Tuesday citizens, except families, will be allowed move around in groups of no more than two.

Health Minister Łukasz Szumowski said a ban was also being imposed on people leaving their homes except for vital journeys such as heading to work, to a shop or a pharmacy.

The ban does not apply to volunteers helping senior citizens.

On public transport, every other seat on buses or trams will have to remain unoccupied.

https://www.polskieradio.pl/395/7789/Artykul/2479811

well, okay then.

[Variety of Cells]

Girlfriend and I are out of work.  She's a real estate broker in the city.  Thankfully the governor has specified that apartments can't be shown, otherwise her company would probably encourage her to keep working.  Her boss gave a 'The media is blowing this out of proportion' speech.  Yeahhhhhh.

I've been out of work for little over a week.  This will be day 10 of my quarantine.  I've managed to get on unemployment insurance before the system was flooded and became nearly impossible to apply for.  The week before was my unpaid waiting week, and I just checked in for my first paid week, which is last week.  Should be getting $504 a week.  Not much considering the rent for my two bedroom is $2,150, but enough to cover my other expenses plus part of rent.  With it, I should be good for quite some time with my savings.  I was seriously looking for a firm where I could do some ethical investing with some of the money I had saved in my checking account.  Yeah, definitely not doing that for a while.

We're hunkered down at my place.  Lots of bike rides, video games, movies, TV.  Started workout routine where I increase the numbers every day of the quarantine.  Not sure how much longer I can keep some of it up.  I'm up to 21 pushups, 55 sit ups, and a 1 minute 10 second plank. 

[MartyS (Gromit)]

I was just looking at the statistics from my aircraft spotter antenna data, normally I pick up about 3000 aircraft a day, it is now down to just under 2000. 

[RVR II]

Sold a comforter set on ebay last night and FedEx beat USPS by a few dollars so I went to Walgreens near my house at 730am and they changed their hours from 9am to 9pm and no one bothered to change the hours on the website!
Found another FedEx drop off at a Dollar General on the way to the post office so I took it there. Turns out I was their first ever FedEx drop off customer I was wearing my postal uniform and they asked me why I was shipping FedEx and told them they beat our postal prices and I gotta save a few dollars  especially nowadays. .

[RVR II]

While working the counters at the 3 different post offices in town and also the small post office in the next county south I notice some customers respect the 6ft space between others but a lot dont. It seems rude and disrespectful when you try to keep your distance from people but it's unfortunately becoming the new norm.. No shouting matches yet but I think altercations could be a possibility 

[RVR II]

Restaurants here have shifted to curb-side order pick ups only or are shutting down completely.
Tried to place a curb-side order at a local restaurant and no one answered the phone. Left a post on their FB page and after 3 hours they said they were temporarily closed.
Would have been nice to leave a post informing us or a voice message for customers to know about this 

[wihogfan]

CEO called a conference call for noon to finally address employee concerns. Conference call canceled at 11:55 am...email downplaying crises sent out instead including a few jokes that totally weren't in line with what was needed...rest of my day spent trying to calm down understandably pissed off employees.

[linszoid]

I thought I was going to have a vacation but apparently my business is essential in the state of Ohio.