Are you still “quarantining” or have you resumed most activities?

[ronandannette]

It’s strange that Alberta is more relaxed than Manitoba considering how low our case load is/was. We are at 305 cases with 7 deaths. I think our active caseload as of today is 8. We had 2 new cases today and 1 yesterday. That’s following weeks of no new cases.

We are mooostly open but everything has restrictions. Our crowd size is 50 indoor, 100 outdoor.

* we are either about to start phase 3 or just did, so these numbers might have changed.

To answer the question, we’re still staying home as much as possible. We both have weakened immune systems (mine being virtually non existent) and we both can work from home so we’re good where we are.

It's incredibly strange. Believe me when I say that absolutely nobody saw the complete relaxation of restrictions coming. Less than a month ago the provincial government cancelled Phase 1 re-opening (planned for May 15 and scrapped on May 12). We were only in a very cautions Phase 1 from May 25 to June 9 when the end of the State of Emergency was announced for yesterday. I'm fine with it - everyone is, but how we got here is still mystifying.

 

[jlmarr]

Mostly quarantining. Still wear masks for all outings. Only essential shopping. Doing a lot of online ordering. Our son has relaxed his rules a bit so we can watch the grandkids a day or two each week, i.e. we've combined our bubbles. Yay!

 

[FlightlessDuck]

The kids have had friends over. Son is current at girlfriend's parents' house halfway across the state. Still wearing masks to go out. Church is looking into resuming live services (through a "drive-in" service). Gyms aren't open yet.

So, "slowly relaxing" I think is the answer.

 

[J'aime Paris]

Summer has pretty much been cancelled here...which is a big deal since we have Long, Cold, Snowy, Winters...
We pack a whole years worth of outings into a few nice weather months....normally.

No state or county Fairs
No Summerfest or any other concert
No Irish, German, Mexiacan Fiesta, Polish, Pride, Indian Summer, Bastille Days, etc, etc..... Festivals
No Brewer games--yet?
No Bucks games--yet?
No church picnics
No EAA
.....and a whole lot of other 'stuff'....too many to bother naming, ugh!

But we are participating in anything that is open/available.
Went to the mall 2 days ago
Been out to eat many times...sometimes inside, sometimes outside if weather permits
Entertaining friends
Going to the gym daily
Getting nails done
In store grocery shopping
Movie theaters--opening soon!

Feel like an 'outlier' around here on the Dis, from most of the posts of people staying inside or waiting for others to take the chances. (I'm extremely social, and Need to be out and about.)
But that's ok... I volunteer as tribute!
Everywhere I go.....lots of people are out and about too!

 

[DisneyJamieCA]

We have created a quarantine bubble with two other families, both who approach the virus with the same thought.

We do take out/curbside/delivery and may try patio seating soon. Not ready for inside dining yet.

ODD has gone to the ortho and I have a dentist appt next month.

My kids will all start in studio dance (with masks and social distance) at the end of the month.

And we are beginning to plan summer vacations now. Will keep it within driving distance and in CA.

Masks are required here, so we do that. I probably would even if they weren’t.

 

[disneychrista]

Summer has pretty much been cancelled here...

Yep. I've been calling this the summer that was cancelled.

 

[J'aime Paris]

Yep. I've been calling this the summer that was cancelled.

Sad, but reality!

 

[Kestryl]

My work still has us on a “travel ban.” If I leave the area, two-week quarantine. If my husband leaves the area, two-week quarantine. If I have visitors who have been outside of the area in the recent past, two-week quarantine.

Meanwhile, my surrounding area is almost completely open up, very few people seem to be wearing masks, and the tourists are visiting in droves. I’m mostly sticking at home- walks around the rural neighborhood, trips to buy groceries, a visit to Lowe’s for stuff for the lawn mower. But I’m tempted to throw caution to the wind- I’m ticked that I can’t see my parents (who I haven’t seen since March) or my husband can’t see his parents (who he wasn’t seen since December), but I can go to graduation ceremonies or the crowded local bar or the nearby theme park with apparently no concern. It doesn’t make sense to me.

 

[ronandannette]

The kids have had friends over. Son is current at girlfriend's parents' house halfway across the state. Still wearing masks to go out. Church is looking into resuming live services (through a "drive-in" service). Gyms aren't open yet.

So, "slowly relaxing" I think is the answer.

Places of worship are permitted to re-open here with no crowd limits, providing the venue allows for maintaining personal distancing. Many, many of them won't open immediately because the logistics are daunting. My church for example, is not huge; we've got about 200 families. The sanctuary seats 300 under normal circumstances (we run two services) and our kids' Sunday School rooms hold maybe 20 apiece.

To properly distance each "cohort" we'd need to drop to about 1/3 capacity at any given time and it really can't be done effectively for the kids. They're running scenarios that include everything from 5 services per Sunday to rotating families twice per month. Any which way it's a problem. In the meantime, ministries that assemble in smaller groups will ramp back up again right away.

 

[disykat]

Like others have mentioned, its generally about where you live, what the current restrictions are, and number of active cases in your area. At home, its still pretty closed up and if you go out everone is wearing masks except a few outliers who refuse. Currently I'm in my parent's community in another state where they've had very few cases. People here give me dirty looks for wearing a mask. I'm tempted to tell them where I'm from as I rip my mask off to make them happy. I'm at very little risk from them!

It's kind of shocking to go from where everyone is wearing masks to where no one is!

 

[wilbret]

Mostly back to normal, kids don’t do as much, though. Gymnastics started back, scouts started back. We’ve been on vacation. We went to a rocket launch. We’ve been to restaurants.

I go to work in the office now, which I hate... I used to travel, and my boss did too. I only went to office if our schedules matched. In other words, hardly ever.

 

[superme80]

I went out to dinner with my family tonight. It was the first time I had been to a restaurant since the quarantine happened. It was a lot of fun. My kids did really good. Co-op is planning on starting up in September. Hopefully dance starts up soon. The pool is opening so I am looking into private swim lessons for the kids. All classes got switched to the afternoon and I hate afternoon classes. Zoos are opening back up. We will wait a bit before we go. So glad life is starting to go back to normal.

 

[hopemax]

Wearing masks, still not dining in a restaurant. Since our cases are low, we are trying to get some errands accomplished before things go south. If we need to go to the grocery store, or Target we just go as needed, and not try to pick a "shopping day." We went to Ikea on Friday for some storage and shelving, but most people were good about distancing and wearing masks. Mostly, we've learned that a lot of places we used to go, we don't need to go.

DH's company (tech) has made the decision to have people WFH the rest of the year. Part of it is financial, their lease was up for renewal at a rate higher than they wanted to pay. They rented a new office, but can't move in until next year. The company that will be renting their current space wants to move in early, so DH's company is going to rent a really small space for 6 months. But otherwise, they just realized that this is working just fine for most people, so their 2021 rented space is smaller than what they normally have, and they expect most people to WFH most days going forward in a post-virus world.

 

[Welsh_Dragon]

Wales is still in lockdown. No restaurants, pubs, non essential shops, exercise only from home etc. Schools only open for the children of essential workers. We are now allowed to visit one other household outdoors, so in a garden with the 2 metre rule, but we can’t enter another person’s home. Beaches, parks, stately homes are closed.

 

[Heather07438]

Like others have mentioned, its generally about where you live, what the current restrictions are, and number of active cases in your area. At home, its still pretty closed up and if you go out everone is wearing masks except a few outliers who refuse. Currently I'm in my parent's community in another state where they've had very few cases. People here give me dirty looks for wearing a mask. I'm tempted to tell them where I'm from as I rip my mask off to make them happy. I'm at very little risk from them!

It's kind of shocking to go from where everyone is wearing masks to where no one is!

Yeah my sister and nephew just drove down to NC to visit my newlywed niece. They wore masks in the states in the states they stopped and alot of people scowled at them. They're trying to be respectful passing thru these states by socially distancing and wearing masks but some people would rather them spread their NJ cooties instead?

 

[Heather07438]

We're still keeping a lower profile but have loosened up a little to visit more people. I feel like summer is a good time to stretch our legs before we'll possibly need to buckle back down once fall comes. We're hanging outside in each other's yards mostly.

Today I saw my other niece and her 2 boys for the 1st time since Feb. Her husband works in the ICU of a hot hospital (Bergen Co, NJ) yet he still tests negative for antibodies. PPE is working. The hospital has cooled down now too. They actually laid off some of the original ER staff because lack of activity.

 

[Meglen]

Still staying home here with bi weekly grocery shopping. Family this week is giving me a hard time about staying locked down to visitors due to it being my son's birthday. Guilt trips and all. But I just can't put them or my son at risk because they wanna go have lunch somewhere...

 

[McNs]

New Zealand here. Our first case wasFeb 28th, in less than 4 weeks after that we locked down hard, with everything shut except for essential services (mostly food supply and utilities). We stayed this way for 4-5 weeks before then allowing fast food to open. This was a little over 2 weeks then we let shops and restaurants open. We are now fully open with the exception of our borders, where any arrivals are quarantined for 2 weeks in a hotel (no option).

We are now COVID free.

Some say being sparsely populated is why we have been so successful, but that isn’t necessarily the case. We have similar land area and population density to Colorado, but they have 20x the number of cases and 75x the number of deaths.

Our tight border control did make a big difference but the secret to our success was rapid lockdown before the virus had a chance to take hold, as well as concise direction from our government, and no politicking from the opposition.

Of course we now can’t leave the country though there is talk of a bubble with Australia if they can manage to get on top of the virus, and a lot of the small
Pacific island nations NZ is close to are also Covid free, some some hope f a holiday destination! Can’t see us heading farther afield for some time as the risk of bringing the virus back to NZ is too great.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

We don't have a lot of choice, as my state is just starting Phase 2. We aren't allowed back on campus yet, so still working from home until July 1 (at a minimum, and the restrictions to returning to work are going to be limiting). Gyms, movie theaters, bowling alleys, etc., aren't open yet. Breweries, taprooms, bars, and wineries aren't open yet. Restaurants have just started opening (a week or 2 ago) with very limited capacity inside, limited if they have outside seating also. Most restaurants are still doing carry-out only. Retail stores (not essential) are allowed to open with limitations, but many haven't chosen to. We are still wearing masks in stores, still staying 6' away from others, still limits on the number of people allowed in a store at one time. I try to limit my shopping to one trip a week. We have been seeing select friends, but always outside, everyone in masks, 6' away from each other.

This pretty much describes us, too. All of us in our houshold are essential workers so we've been going to work all along, but we haven't really seen others besides DS's girlfriend and DH has seen his father. That's it. Shop just when necessary. Wear masks everywhere (required). We have lots of outdoor space at home with porches and a pool so it feels like we've been outside a lot. Have gotten take out but have not eaten out except to get food and take it somewhere nice outside to eat it either in the car or outside where no one's around.

But last week I had to take the dog to the vet's and it seemed bizarre we had to wait in the car while someone talked to us on the phone then one person came out to get the dog and later the masked vet came to the window to talk to me about what was going on and to sign an estimate for care. We never left the car. Yesterday DD had an eye appt which she's needed for a while, she went in alone. They did let me go in when she was trying on glasses as she wanted another opinion, but the glasses she touched had to be kept in a container, then we went to an isolated room where she could take her mask off and try on the glasses while I sat a distance away, still masked. When she was done everything including the glasses and the desk she was at was sanitized. She was afraid to ask to use the restroom but she did and they let her while I returned to the car. So those experiences felt anything but normal.

DS and his girlfriend went out to get ice cream last night but wound up leaving the line because the people in front of them turned around and were staring at them. They weren't sure why because they were masked and distanced, lol, but they were giving them the stink eye and gf became uncomfortable. Our family likes to play with people like that but she doesn't, so they went somewhere else. Since most places were closed by then they wound up with frozen yogurt which wasn't what they wanted and they were miffed about it still when they came back home. Some people have gotten funny, I guess. Again, another reminder that we're not in normal times here still. Looking forward to getting a real haircut this week my DD cut my hair a month ago and did a decent job, but now that it's growing out again it really needs a good cut. Normally I have no trouble getting an appt but I've had to wait as hairdresser has been crazy busy.

 

[Christine]

We entered Phase 2 this past Friday. I did go to Marshall's to see how it looked. Weird the way they changed the layout (very long rows of racks, etc). There was probably a few too many people in there for my comfort, so I turned around and left.

Otherwise, I do go to the grocery store several times a week (I make the rounds between Wegmans, Safeway, and Harris Teeter) because not ONE of those stores at any given time will have all that I need. Oh and I go to Petco here and there for pet stuff if I can't get something on line. That's been my life for 12 weeks!

I am still teleworking although next week starts Phase 1 at my office (government agency) where 20% of the workforce--volunteers only--are coming back in. I will be part of Phase 2 and we don't have a date for that yet.

Basically, my life hasn't changed much but I do have the freedom to know that if I'm really bored I can pop into a store or something.