Life in the Age of Corona

A Daily Diary

Monday, December 28th, 2020

Departure

I have now learned why the days between Christmas and new year are called “in between the years”. It appears the Gregorian calendar ended on December 24th and the new year did not start until January 6th, hence the days literally were between the years.

Today my sister and her family left to return home. We had an unusually harmonious Christmas. No fights, until breakfast today, when a dear family friend called. After a communal call she spoke to me for a bit. I was the only one who had not finished breakfast, however everyone else left and went to play a game. When the call was done, I cleared the table and tidied up. This resulted in my sister feeling send of, so she was in a huff. In the end we made up and played a board game before they packed their car and left. Mum was sad to see them go as was I. We had great conversations, last night until 2 in the morning even.

I went off to go for a walk with one of my friends. An eight kilometer walk around the river Alster, which in parts looks more like a lake even though it really is a river. EM went off to do schoolwork. Later we finished all the leftovers of our Christmas dinner.

Tonight, it will just be three generations of women of the family. We will light the tree and watch a quiz show.

Mum and I are also planning Old Years eve. The plot had been to go and play cards with her friends. However, our neighbor, who is part of the group, has now reported that her son’s father in law has tested positive. She says, she did not spend any time with them; however, her son may have spent time with his wife’s family before Christmas, so erring on the side of caution I do not think we should meet. Maybe mum and I will just stay home and cook a nice meal; even if numbers reported in Germany are just at 12k. I believe this is due to reduced testing over the holidays.

With “only” 152k new infections reported in the US the same holds true there. Total infections are now at 19.5 million and 341k people have succumbed to the effects of the virus. What may under these circumstances well be good news is that India is about to approve Oxford/ AstraZeneca vaccine for emergency use in the coming week. Britain is supposed to follow suit. This would dramatically increase the availability of vaccines, especially for less wealthy nations.

I am definitely partial to that vaccine and cannot wait for it to be approved in the USA.