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By Jamie Etheridge
Monday night the government announced an extension of the public holiday until April 23, an extension of the partial curfew by two hours, now from 5 pm to 6 am, and the lockdown of two densely-populated areas - Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh and Mahboula. The news left many people terrified, and it's still unclear how the lockdowns will work. Residents in those areas are understandably worried about what the next two weeks will hold.
All of us are looking for a light at the end of the tunnel. When this started in the last week of February with the first cases of COVID-19 and the government's calls to #stayathome, none of us could have imagined how disruptive it would be. None of us likely considered the weeks and weeks of staying at home and nightly curfews and lockdowns and the terrifying rise in the daily tally counts of infected cases.
Some, possibly good, news is emerging from Europe that may point the way forward. On Monday, Italy reported the lowest number of new infections since the outbreak started there. Germany and Spain are reporting declines in new cases too and France is finally starting to see a leveling off. Austria and Denmark are now looking at ways to stagger the reopening of public life after the next two weeks.
Fears of resurgence, however, along with continued social distancing efforts remain. The slow emergence from the lockdown continues to limit the return to normalcy in Wuhan, China, the first city to shut down due to the coronavirus.
We are still in the midst of the pandemic and the end may be something we can begin to anticipate, but it is not here yet. If this were a marathon, we are now in the middle miles, the long lonely hard ones where the finish line is still too far out and the miles run so far have left us hurting, hungry and exhausted. The marathon is the middle miles and there is nothing to do but keep going, stay strong mentally, stay at home and get through this the best way we can.
