Later the same day I posted last, our province instituted a state of emergency, reinforcing the restrictions and making it possible to enforce them when necessary with legal action.
Any returning travelers are screened at the provincial or international border, and given printed rules to follow, including a clear statement that, once within the boundaries of this province they are on 14 days self isolation, and are not to stop for supplies or anything else between the border and immigration building and their own home or face fines of up to $1000 per infraction. Someone has to shop for their supplies and drop them off to them. They are then required to self monitor daily and report any symptoms immediately.
A rapidly developing form of socializing is "drive by waves", just what it sounds like, car pulls up in front, sounds the horn, people exchange waves or shouted greetings between car and front door, and then they are on their way again! There are also neighbourhood egg hunts and bear hunts, with those things placed in windows for children to observe and count as they are taken for neighbourhood walks or drives; house to car, circle the area, no stops and home again. Reminds me of a childhood game; Mom would send us out to walk around the block (as young as 5 or 6 on our own!) and tell us to count the number of red things we saw in front yards, or the number of black house numbers, flower boxes or garden reflecting globes; I realize now it was anything she could think of to get us out for a bit LOL.
After no increase in the number of cases for 3 days, we had 6 new reports on one day, all of which were returning travelers or direct contacts with existing cases, and many of them had already been following isolation protocols. It was also a predicted spike, based on the time of the last cruise guests returning.
Our neighbouring provinces have also declared states of emergency, and travel between provinces , except for essential traffic to maintain supply lines and for emergencies, has been stopped, or drastically reduced, and now includes mandatory 14 day self isolation, just like international travel.
We remain well, and still finding things to do, but the increasingly nice weather is making it worse; you can only walk and explore so far on your own property, even if it is near the woods and in a beautiful, natural part of the world! One local natural trail had to be cleared by police, because even with physical distancing and responsible hikers, there were just too many people out there! The trails are narrow and winding, so if you catch up with someone, you can't get by and still maintain a buffer zone; so "Stay.At.Home" is becoming our new motto!
