How has COVID-19 affected you personally?

I hope your mother recovers and you stay safe!

 

Although I have no intention of trying to go to the USA under the present circumstances, the ongoing threat here has been highlighted by Leicester having their lockdown easing reversed; I just happened to have been working there six of the past eight days. Ooh and I visited nearby Twycross too on Sunday

 

Lately I have been experiencing a major increase in my stress and anxiety levels as I have witnessed a major and rather rapid resurgence in the number of diagnosed Covid-19 cases here.

Right now it seems like there are some local and regional resurgences/new outbreaks, but so far we just don't know very much about what is causing this resurgence - which is very worrisome. Things really aren't going too well here in Belgium. Contact tracing isn't working well, data collection and transmission isn't going well and thus it is very difficult to come up with the right policies to control these new outbreaks, because basically policy makers just don't know much.

We are also still seeing a lot of rule-breaking irresponsible behavior by too many people. Too many people just don't seem to (want to) realize the seriousness of the situation we are still in and are just being selfish and going for their own little pleasures without thinking of others.

Honestly I am really scared that Belgium will soon be in a situation like we are seeing in the United States or other countries where things have massively escalated again. I fear that we can expected forced roll-backs of the relaxations of the lockdown and quarantine rules pretty soon now. I fear that we are at the start of the second wave and that the places I love, like zoos, and many other businesses will soon have to close again - and might very well not survive this time around. If this resurgence isn't controlled soon I am afraid there will be even more irreparable damage to society and the economy.

I was planning to go to Antwerp Zoo tomorrow to see the recently finished developments, but given the current situation and given that Antwerp is one of the regions where a resurgence is seen (and pretty much the worst one in terms of absolute number of cases) I am questioning very much whether it is actually responsible to do so. However much I love going to the zoo, I fear the risk might already be too great again. Currently am I going back and forth between thinking it might better to again shelter in place and not go anywhere I do not absolutely have to and going to the places that I love while I still can, before things get worse and might close down again.

 

I'm also worried about a second COVID surge causing a lot of problems. We're buying extra food and toiletries in the event of shortages or rising prices. But I'm concerned about my long-term prospects. I was struggling to find a good job even before all this...

 

I am sad to say that is a very reasonable fear, IMO
If there is no actual way to control the spread until there is an effective widely available vaccine then the global economy is going to remain badly crippled. After one year + of that what will the "after" look like?

 

If I get desperate I can mooch off my parents, but of course that isn't ideal. I'm 27 and I've still never had a job that pays enough to let me live on my own... That's gonna be so much harder to achieve now.

 

Sadly that is a generational reality. It is a privileged place to have parents one can turn to. But let's hope it doesn't come to that

 

I'm just especially disappointed because I really wanted to make 2020 work for me. Look harder into jobs, try to break into professional zoo/wildlife photography on the side... That ain't happening. Probably won't happen next year either, or the year after that. On the plus side, the current generation of kids and teenagers is shockingly bad at using technology. So maybe I won't lose my edge just yet.

 

The situation is slowly improving again here in Belgium and the number of new cases is decreasing again, but there substantial regional differences. For example in the province of Antwerp where I live there is a substantial decrease and measures seem to be working well, while the number of cases is still increasing quite rapidly in Brussels. So while there is some positive news, we are definitely not out of the woods yet. As such our government has decided to extend most of the current federal measures against the spread of Covid-19, with only some adjustments made after the last National Security Council.

My employer has decided that office staff (like I am) will continue to work from home maximally if not totally until October 31st. We can only go to the office one day per week with mandatory registration and reservation for tasks that we cannot perform or cannot perform easily from home. From November onwards, if the epidemic allows, they want to return to the system of voluntary part-time presence with registration/reservation that was in place in June and July.

So it seems that I will likely not be returning to my office again until November, unless something turns up that requires me to go to the office (unlikely, but not entirely impossible). I really don't mind working from home, especially in this times, given that I rely on public transport to get to the office and that it works better for me with regards to my autism spectrum disorder than being in the office, so I am not unhappy with this.

On a personal level, while we have cancelled all our foreign zoo plans for 2020, we have recently decided that the current situation does allow for the two-day trip to Pairi Daiza with a night in their resort we started talking about at the beginning of the year. So in early September we will be spending two days at Pairi Daiza and sleeping one night in their resort hotel. I am happy that at least one of my major plans for 2020 is still going to happen after all.

 

Several months on from my last post and unfortunately Belgium will be going into a second lockdown, or what our prime minister today called a "tighter lockdown" and "last chance restrictions".

Aside from no longer being able to visit a zoo until at least December 13rd the biggest, the biggest consequence of the new restrictions for me is that I will again be unable to see my grandmother for weeks. Single-person households (my grandmother is a widow living alone) are still allowed 2 visitors, but not at the same time, so I will no longer be able to tag along with my mother to my grandmother on Sundays, which does upset me a bit, and I will miss that weekly habit.

The rules of this lockdown are however not as strict in some areas as the one we had in the spring, and no ban on non-essential travel has been implemented. Therefore my mother and I will still be able to drive to natural areas and forests for walks when the weather allows, so at least we still have that. If they had re-instated this ban only local areas reachable by bicycle would still have been an option - and our current weather conditions really aren't very encouraging for non-necessary cycling, as we currently have a fair amount of unpleasantly cold wind.

However difficult I find it I am trying to retain some home and optimism that this situation will improve at some point, and hopefully be over at some point also. But it will likely be a while before that happens, unfortunately. An extension beyond those six weeks is not at all unlikely.

Mentally I am not always doing well lately, but I am doing my best to implement coping strategies to get through the current situation.

Work-wise I have only returned to work twice since March 10th, and the second time was for an outdoor team meeting with social distancing. So I have only been in my office once since March, in July. And I will almost certainly be working from home for the rest of the year, given the earliest end date of the lockdown and the face my office and agency close for the Holidays. I am used to that now and I do not dislike it at all either. And while I may miss some small aspects of my office, I do not at all miss being on public transports, especially at the current time.

On a final note: I have yet to decide what I am going to do with my gallery postings from my 2020 visits. During the previous lockdown I did not mentally feel up to doing gallery postings or even look at too much zoo pictures. I don't know what I should or will do yet at this time.

 

Took me long enough to find this thread. Here's my two cents.

I already was a wreck from my deranged roommate, so government's countermeasures which just kept getting extended on and on did not help. Thus hilarity ensues and I fail my college course for good.

 

I can appreciate what you are going through. This is horribly tough time for everybody. Lockdown in no fun, we have just come out of almost 4 months of lockdown.

There is no shame in reaching out for professional help at a time like this. Just having someone else to talk to eases the burden. All the best and we're thinking of you.

 

Thank you very much for your support.

I really hope we are not headed for four months of lockdown here, but I don't think anyone can say that couldn't happen at this time.

With regards to my mental struggles: I am already seeing a therapist and I discussed some of the coping strategies on Monday. I will also be seeing my therapist again during the lockdown period.

To be fully honest, I am in a relatively comfortable situation aside from the mental aspects. I apologize if my posts may come across as excessive complaining or wallowing in self pity, as that is absolutely not my intention. I am fully in favor of people talking about their burdens and struggles, including mental welfare issues, and especially at a time like this. And of course I have only the greatest respect for those who have different and greater challenges and struggles at this time, and in no way wish to diminish their experiences.

 

Don't apologise. We all need the opportunity to vent, and why not here amongst friends? Good to hear you are getting help, I know it has helped me.

 

I've had enough of this fizzy drink mayhem (corona being a soft drink brand when I was a kid).

12 months ago, I had to submit my holiday requests for 2020, the bulk of of which have bookended the start of lockdown and the end of the decent (often glorious) weather in the UK. If you haven't read my moaning already, in March I wanted to go see some Polar bear cubs in mainland Europe, but couldn't, and to cap the disappointment of not going to the USA in Sep/Oct, the weather here went tits up on my 2 week break. A couple of years ago, someone on this forum remarked on how expensive it is to book late for holidays, but I can only be grateful for not booking actual flights etc far ahead of time and having the extra stress of getting that money back.

Every day now feels like a greater battle than pre covid, as not only do I not get any satisfaction from my job, but I am being forced into the households of ignorant customers not observing social distancing and am supposed to sell them overpriced stuff they do not really need to 'maintain' the appliances I am there to repair (I am an engineer, not a salesman).

We're being paid an extra few pennies to cover our sanitising between jobs, which some office knob has calculated to be around 30 minutes a day .... but to me, that is roughly the time they equate to a house visit and the extra potential of being exposed to this virus. The company line is, if we feel uncomfortable in a house, then we explain it to the customer, tell them to rebook and leave. It really isn't that simple as many will have already been without a functioning appliance for a week.

In a way, I want another lockdown*, as the workload on us dropped last time, but i'd like to think that more essential calls were filtered through to us this time; fixing tumble dryers during roasting hot periods for people who were furloughed with plenty of garden space, while NHS/essential workers' washing machines had to wait made me really angry throughout the summer.

I personally rarely use a tumble dryer and wish that more people could get by without them and other gadgets (electric bins FFS!) in the house. People have a lot of electronic crap and do not care where the materials come from to operate them, or the wildlife that has be sacrificed in the process. They do not seem to care about the impact on their childrens'/grandchildrens' futures owning and running these things will have, so why should I? I've had a couple (or ten) of ciders for the first time in months btw and of course, I know there are so may people in worse predicaments than myself ..... I visit some of them on a daily basis, which doesn't always help me cope.


*Another lockdown should it include zoos etc, would be disastrous for many of them, so I do not want that stress put upon them.

 

@littleRedPanda it's good that people get things repaired by engineers like you, rather than chucking then out and buying new stuff. Though I agree, a washing line is best in good weather.

 

If people bought decent quality machines though, we wouldn't have to repair them so frequently and many of us would be out of a job. The amount of plastic and electronics that we replace on a daily basis to keep cheaper models running makes me wonder if I am doing a good thing; hopefully the company is recycling responsibly, but you never really know.

 

At the beginning of the year the University here promised that practicals would go through no matter what as long as social distancing could be maintained, mouth-masks were worn and regular disinfection was done. And here we are with all practicals suspended for at least 2 weeks and possibly for the entire semester. Long live the second peak!

Yes I live in Belgium, yes we have claimed the title of worst European country in battling corona at the moment, yes some people here still don't realise that they have to take it serious. Seriously, the stupidities you see here everyday. People putting of their mouth-masks to talk to each other or to make a phone-call indoors! People not understanding that 10 cm is not even close to 1,5 m! Oh and the hoarders have emerged once more, huge rows at Ikea today and significant increases in supermarket sales.

 

I’m starting to feel the stress from the pandemic. Yes, I know, I should’ve started panicking since March but here’s my case for why now. I’m currently on my last semester of college to get my undergrads, and am reaching the age where I want to look for a job to sustain myself. I normally work for a zoo in New York (I’m keeping the name secret for privacy sake), and my position, a seasonal keeper position for the summers that I’ve worked last year and was expected to come back to, was let go back in March due to COVID. The first thing I want to do once I graduate is to let my people their know that I’m available for work, but I really don’t think I’ll find anything in my field for a long while. It’s unfortunate as last year was my break into the zoo world due to both my position, and attending the AZA annual conference. So I’m quite worried about my prospects of building my career now for the next year at least.