Morning statistics – Uncertainty about the Hajj – Triumph of New Zealand – Promising news from other countries – Shortages becoming less common – Retail stores – Testing out the new sneakers – Bison attack in Yellowstone – Reminiscence of the elks of Yellowstone – Evening statistics
Today’s statistics as of 8:00 AM — # of cases worldwide: 7,114,817; # of deaths worldwide: 406,650; # of cases U.S.: 2,007,531; # of deaths U.S.: 112,471. For several weeks Spain and Italy were the two countries with the highest case counts after the U.S., but that has changed greatly this month. Brazil and Russia both have hundreds of thousands more cases than Spain and the U.K. has nearly as many. India, which at one point appeared to have matters under control, has already surpassed Italy in the number of cases, and Peru will soon be doing the same. Chile, Mexico, and Pakistan have also seen continual large increases of cases.
Saudi Arabia has also seen a spike in the number of cases, so that its count now exceeds 100,000. No announcement has been made about the Hajj, but its cancellation is becoming increasingly likely. Indonesia, which has the largest number of Muslims of any country in the world, has already instructed its citizens not to attend, and India will probably follow suit. Jeddah, the gateway to the pilgrimage to Mecca, is currently under lockdown. It has a curfew lasting from 3:00 PM to 6:00 AM, a suspension of prayers in mosques, and a stay-at-home order for public and private sector workers. Authorities are contemplating similar lockdown restrictions for Riyadh. The Umrah still remains suspended.
New Zealand now has no active cases of the virus. All of the restrictions imposed earlier are being removed, except for border restrictions. Anyone entering the country must undergo a 14-day quarantine. New Zealand, of course, has the advantage of being an island nation and can regulate its border somewhat more easily than other countries can. There is still some economic pain: thousands have lost jobs and tourism, which accounts for 10% of the national industry, has been particularly hard-hit. But the New Zealanders are now in the enviable position of having no limitations on public events, weddings, funerals, social functions. Retail stores are fully operational, as are hotels and public transportation.
Other countries have shown promising declines. South Korea was reporting between 700 and 800 new cases per day in March; now the number of daily new cases is between 30 and 40. Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Vietnam also appear to have tamed the virus. Hong Kong has averaged one new case per day for the past month. Taiwan has had only one new case in the past three weeks. Vietnam continues to astonish onlookers. It has had only 332 cases, of which a mere 16 are still active, and no deaths. The other success stories are island nations or territories, but Vietnam has a substantial border with China – a border, however, which the Vietnamese government determined from the onset that no one would cross as long as the virus was active.
I shopped at Walmart today for certain items that I can buy there at slightly lower prices. It was not particularly crowded, possibly because I arrived at 7:00, just as it opened. Some of the shelves were nearly empty but most of them were stocked. Yeast is available again and I bought some to add to the supply I received from my aunt. I probably am going to be making use of it soon. I used to make bread during my days as a graduate student, but I fell out of that habit when I worked at a 9-to-5 job. I’ve began bread-making again some weeks ago when bread was no longer to be found on the shelves, and I probably will continue to do so even though bread is now obtainable.
On the whole I think I’ve been managing pretty well during the time of the shortages. I tried to keep my shopping excursions down to one per week, making out a list beforehand. I did not hoard items and I do not, at this point, have any large amounts of any items that I cannot use. I certainly bought some items (paper towels, aluminum foil, etc.) in bulk for the sake of economy, but I used to do this long before the virus had any effect on the store supplies. And I’ve coped when certain items were unavailable – for example, making a sourdough starter when yeast was off of the shelves, eating more vegetarian meals to become less dependent on meat, and so on.
I then went on foot to one of the local malls, where several retail stores are newly open. I am not one of those for whom shopping is an art form, but I certainly was pleased to be able to obtain a new pair of sneakers from a shoe store that had re-opened this morning. I have worn out a few pairs of sneakers over the past several months (I go through footwear fairly quickly, for obvious reasons), and I’ve been anxious to get new ones. It’s possible to order them online, but it’s much better to try them out first before purchasing them.
Naturally I had to break in the new pair of sneakers I selected, so instead of going back the most direct way (which would have been about 2 miles) I went via a more roundabout route that brought the total up to 15 miles for the excursion. The route went along some of the quieter roads and a network of trails, including a segment of the Cross-County Trail. We are in late spring now. The leaves have lost the translucent quality that characterizes them when they first begin to unfurl and they are now brilliant green in the sunlight, darkening in the shade to a hue similar to that of the skin of an avocado. It was a brilliant sunlit day, without clouds, and the portions of the walk that went through woodlands presented that distinctive mosaic in the forest scenery of the eastern U.S.: chinks of blue emerging among the outlines of the leaves with their various hues of green and of the boles and limbs of the trees, with their subtle shadings of brown and grey.
Yellowstone National Park re-opened recently, and just two days afterwards a visitor was attacked by a bison. I can readily understand how this might happen. Bison look placid and slow-moving, but this appearance is deceptive; they do not like people to approach them too closely and they will sometimes make their displeasure known, either by ramming the intruder to the ground or goring him or her with its horns. And they are much, much faster than they look. They can run at 35 MPH, make turns very quickly, and jump fences. I remember when I was visiting Yellowstone with various friends how we sometimes had to drive on roads where the bison were crossing; all we could do was wait patiently until the bison chose to get out of the way of the cars.
Indeed, encounters with wildlife were fairly frequent on that particular trip. We happened to be there at the height of the elks’ rutting season, when they lose all appearance of timidity that they might display during other seasons. There was one time, for instance, when three of us were hiking together and, on the very last mile of the hike, we encountered a cow elk grazing directly on the trail. One side of the trail was defined by a nearly perpendicular rock wall and on the other was a sheer drop, so we could not go around her. She did not respond to our attempts to shoo her away, giving us a look of languid disdain as she concentrated on the serious business of feeding herself. It is possible that she felt my fatal fascination and was riveted to the spot in consequence; what is indisputable was that she was not moving. At long last she espied a new grazing opportunity further up the hill beyond the trail, and as she went there we trudged by.
Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM — # of cases worldwide: 7,189,800; # of deaths worldwide: 408,240; # of cases U.S.: 2,026,425; # of deaths U.S.: 113,055.