There seems to be a general panic in government circles. The panic has been caused, not by the number of cases, but by the levels of Covid in the city’s effluent. Some scientists believe there are 80,000 infected people in the capital area. Accordingly, the curfew in the Athens area and Thessaloniki has been extended at weekends. We are now confined to barracks from 6pm to 5am at the weekend. One thing is certain, however. The sense of panic in the government is not extending to the general population, certainly when people are outdoors. I have walked along the seafront several times and I can confirm that no more than 15 – 20% of walkers, cyclists and joggers are wearing their masks properly. The others seem to fall into four categories. 1) No mask, 2) mask under the mouth, 3) mask under the nose and 4) – my favourites – the polite: the mask protects their chins. As you approach them, they pull their masks up over their noses until you have passed them. Then they immediately pull them down to chin level again. Added to this mess, there is the reasonably large group of people who think sitting on a bench smoking constitutes exercise.
On 6th February Greece recorded 1,113 new cases, 29 deaths and 249 intubated. According to https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ the total number of deaths is still below 6,000 with a death rate of 575/million. This is very good compared with the figures in other European countries, so I wonder if the extended curfew is necessary. Maybe more patrolling of promenades is necessary.
The music is going as well as expected. We assembled on Zoom at 11am this morning (7th February). We are gradually becoming more organised. Using YouTube and Audacity, we are splicing together practice material. Not an easy task. Finding something in our key and the right pace is not the easiest of tasks, but we’re managing to get meaningful practices done. We’re probably more productive too in that there are not the same distractions as in a live practice e.g. alcohol! Time for tea before I join the Malta session. The Malta session was bedevilled by connectivity problems but enjoyable nonetheless.