COVID-19 timeline

I hope that you, your family and friends are doing well.

While catching up with friends recently, we were talking about how our families are dealing with COVID-19. While retelling my experience, I thought that I was starting to forget the progression of the pandemic.

As the days and weeks pass, how different things are and how quickly they changed. It is making me want to capture the timing of things and how it has impacted our lives. I hope that by capturing how these days have changed, in the future when I reflect back at this time period, I will be more grateful for every day and appreciative of the little things that we sometimes take for granted.

I hope to inspire you to do the same and capture the moments that are significant in your COVID-19 timeline. Are there some positives that you can take from it? Is your family spending more quality time together? Have you caught up on projects that you were procrastinating on? Have you embraced technology and connected online instead of in person?
 
I have highlighted some memorable moments in the post timeline to help you remember your personal moments. If you feel like my timeline is too generic, I have removed some personal stories for this public version to keep them private and not bore you too much with my details.

Although I normally focus on the positive, COVID-19 has impacted the world in a negative way. In 2001, I journaled about the impact of 9/11 on our lives. Although it was a sad time, I believe it's important to remember these impactful events. As I have heard countless times, these are unprecedented times. Hopefully the worst days of COVID-19 are behind us and I am writing as things will start to get better.

Canada had its first case of COVID-19 confirmed on January 27th. 

On February 7th, a plane landed in Trenton with Canadians who were repatriated from Wuhan. They were quarantined on the Canadian Forces Base.

My personal COVID-19 story started in early February when we bought hand sanitizer and wipes for our flight on February 11th to Vancouver. Although there is little stock of these items in the stores, I imagine that they are being saved for hospitals.

On flights, we were very careful to wipe the tray, screen, seat belt and other hard surfaces that we would touch. Once in Vancouver, Whistler and Victoria, we didn't think of COVID-19 on a personal level and didn't take any precautions.

We were in Whistler for Valentine's Day. I felt bad for having left our daughter alone at home so had left a card that I bought a couple of years ago. My original plan had been to send it to her when she was away for the summer working as a summer camp counsellor.

I recently saw the card I gave her and thought it was even more perfect for today. With us practicing social distancing, we can only send virtual hugs.

On February 21st, a flight with Canadians who were aboard the cruise ship Diamond Princess were brought to Trenton and quarantined. At this point, I still think that this is a problem from elsewhere and those coming back are being quarantined so we'll all be safe.

The Dow Jones goes down every day this week and "bottoms out" on February 28th at 25,400 from a high of 29,200. By March 23rd, it had fallen to 18,592, its lowest since the end of 2016.

We left for Hawaii on February 29th. We were again careful on the flights but didn't think much more about it until the next day. We had a dinner event on March 1st with 600 people from around the world. Although we were not supposed to be shaking hands, we were all sharing serving utensils at the various food stations. We were sharing tables and in close contact with everyone. I still wasn't worried.

We sat down at an empty part of a picnic table and introduced ourselves to those who were there.

We asked them "Where are you from?"
"Italy" they said.
We added "oh we love Italy, whereabouts?" (or some other friendly follow-up question)

They were surprised by our reaction as they said that many people wanted to keep their distance when they realized they were from italy. I didn't understand why. This is when I found out that there were over 1000 cases in Italy. How did it jump so high so fast I wondered? It seemed like yesterday, there were only a handful. One thousand cases seemed like SO much back then.

COVID-19 was not a worry when we were on our trip. It was a topic of discussion that seemed far away from where we were. We ate at restaurants and shopped without thinking of who was nearby or who was touching what.

While on holiday, I saw people on Facebook posting about empty shelves at grocery stores.

When we returned on March 8th, there were 67 cases in Canada.

March 9th, the first Canadian dies of complications related to COVID-19.

Canadians are being advised to avoid non-essential travel to Italy. They are nearing 10000 cases.

I went to the grocery store and LCBO on March 10th. Some shelves were bare but it was mostly normal. I am not worried about infecting someone or being infected.

On March 10th, the Prime Minister tweets:

"March Break is coming up and if you’re travelling, we recommend you check out travel advisories from @TravelGoC. We also encourage you to use the Registration of Canadians Abroad service to receive important updates before & during your travel."
On March 11th, the WHO declares COVID-19 a pandemic.

On March 11th, Laurentian University is the first to announce that they will move their classes online the next day. Other universities would follow suit in the days to come.

On March 12th, our Prime Minister self-isolates as he announces that his wife tested positive for COVID-19 after coming back from London, England.

Friday the 13th starts with our premier giving the advice to Ontarians to go on March Break and "have fun" during a Q&A. That afternoon, he announces that schools will remain closed for two weeks after March Break. That makes sense I think, everyone comes back and self-isolate for two weeks so if there is someone with symptoms, they don't spread it in schools. I am still thinking that it would be the minority who would have COVID-19. I think life will be back to normal once they have self-isolated.

Bank of Canada lowers rate to 3/4%.

Later that day, the recommendation is that all travellers coming back should self-isolate so following our mayor's lead who returned from London two days prior, we self-isolate (family-isolate) for 9 days which would be 14 days from the day we returned.

The Prime Minister then announces that we should avoid non-essential travel. 

On Friday the 13th, Canada has 198 cases.

Major sporting events are cancelled. Tourist attractions close. Large crowd events are cancelled in the hopes of flattening the curve. We are advised to "social distance" and keep 6 feet from each other. Meetings and social hangouts move online with the help of zoom and other video chat apps. We are socially connecting while physically distancing.

On March 14th, Canadians are being told to "come home via commercial means while they remain available". Some countries are closing their borders. Airlines are cancelling flights.

On the 16th, Canada announces that it will close its borders to foreigners on the 18th. Only Canadians, residents, immediate families and U.S. citizens will be allowed to enter.

On St. Patrick's Day, gatherings of more than 50 people are banned. There are 598 cases.

Canada's case number climbs higher than 1000 on March 20th.

More than one million Canadians and residents returned to Canada from March 13th to 20th.

People start decorating their windows with hearts and rainbows and sharing photos on social media.

Our family isolation ends on March 22nd, but at this point, there's really no where to go. We are being told to only go out when it's essential. Our pantry and fridge are still stocked so no need to go to the grocery store.

Canada announces that they will not send athletes to the 2020 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games. The Games would be postponed to 2021 a few days later.

March Break ends and classes would have resumed on the 23rd.

The price of gas is the lowest in 20 years. It was $0.75/L in Toronto.

Non-essential businesses in Ontario were ordered shut.

In the next week, more and more would close. Parks and playgrounds were closed. There were limited number of people allowed in stores at one time. Restaurants and cafes either closed or only offered take-out or delivery service. Grocery pick-up times were filled up for the next two weeks (as far in advance as we could order). No gatherings of 5 or more.

On March 31st, Ontario announced that schools would be closed until at least May 4th.

Friends circulate the message on Facebook that "April Fools Day is cancelled because no made up prank could match the unbelievable sh*t happening in the world right now".

When I started this post on April 2nd, Canada had more than 10,000 cases.

The two week self-isolation after March Break is to end on April 6th. Is this when we will see the curve start to flatten? I sure hope so.

Normally when we journal or preserve memories, they are of happy times. I wanted to preserve this timeline because it seems like yesterday that we were living carefree and yet it seems like forever.

It will be interesting to see when things go back to normal and what that normal will look like.

Stay healthy everyone!


Summary of numbers:
# cases - date
1 - January 27
3 - January 31
10 - February 23
20 - February 29
97 - March 10
198 - March 13 - last day of school before March Break
598 - March 17
1088 - March 20
1472 - March 22 - official end of March Break (Sunday)
2091 - March 23
6320 - March 29
11285 - April 2