Far from home
Cape Bretoners in different countries share pandemic experiences
As COVID-19 infections spread across the world, different countries developed their own strategies for fighting the virus. Some areas were hit harder than others and Cape Bretoners who live in five different countries told the Cape Breton Post what it’s been like for them living away during the pandemic. Liz Wadden-Cappa and her seven-year-old daughter Isabella were excited their friends were coming to spend the weekend with them at their home in Tuscany, Italy, on March 6.
They didn’t expect they’d end up in lockdown together as the Italian government shut borders and issued stayat-home orders on March
9 to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19.
The two mothers worked on cruise ships together and met their husbands, who still work in the industry, during this time.
Before the nationwide lockdown, some provinces like the one Wadden-Cappa’s friends lived in were already forced to stay at home. Since the Sampieros live in an apartment, and her friend Marci’s son, Ty, was also seven, Wadden-Cappa invited them to come to their home in Montecatini Terme, Tuscany so the children could play in their backyard.
“The kids get up, they do their homeschooling, we started that before (the education department) did. They started that two weeks ago,” said Wadden-Cappa who is self-employed and originally from Main-a-Dieu.
“It’s been good having Marci and Ty here. The kids have someone to play with. Marci takes over when I am working and I do when she has to.”
Italy has been one of the countries hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic with 30,560 deaths and 219,070 cases (as of May 11). WaddenCappa said the virus spread fast because people wouldn’t abide by stay-at-home orders.
Most COVID-19 cases are in Northern Italy, particularly in Codongo, in the province of Lodi in Lombardy. On Feb. 18, a man there, who was athletic, tested positive and refused to listen to doctor recommendations to self-quarantine.
About 75 per cent of the country’s cases are believed to be in the North.
“People in the North, they didn’t take the virus seriously. They just did what they normally would,” said WaddenCappa. “They were coming to stay at their summer home, they came to go to festivals… (One week) police gave out 5,000 fines (between $600 - $5,000) for breaking (lockdown laws).”
During the lockdown, which started to be eased on May 4, only one person was allowed out of the house for essential reasons.
There were three places you could go (the grocery store, the pharmacy and the hospital if hurt or sick) and you could only go there after requesting permission through a government app.
Once approved, a declaration had to be printed off to show police if stopped while out.
All restaurants, bakeries and retail outlets were closed and no cross-province travel, as well as international travel, was permitted.
Now, as the restrictions have started being lifted, restaurants and bakeries are open for take-out only, people can go for walks in their neighbourhoods and permission to go out is no longer needed. However, schools remain closed until September and people are asked to wear masks and practice social distancing when in public.
Parks and playgrounds remain closed while beaches are still under consideration. Wadden-Cappa said this is because people pay to use the beach in Italy and some with summer homes pay thousands of euros yearly to use them.
“I’m just hoping the numbers stay low and that people use common sense.”
Liz Wadden-Cappa
At the peak of the crisis, Italy reported 983 deaths related to COVID-19 in one 24 hour period — on May 10 there were 194 deaths and less than 1,200 new cases with only 1 per cent of active cases being categorized as serious.
The Sampieros were able to return home on May 9 after nine weeks with their hosts, eight weeks of which were enforced lockdown, something that was bittersweet for both families.
Ty would no longer have a backyard to play in with a friend and Wadden-Cappa is now the only adult in her home as her husband is working. Originally, Giancarlo was supposed to be home mid-June but due to difficulties disembarking, crew in different countries with varying laws and regulations related to COVID-19 and with long lineups of ships waiting to dock, he’s not expected back until July or August.
And as Italians start to go out in public again, WaddenCappa hopes people listen to health officials so there isn’t another spike in cases.
“I’m just hoping the numbers stay low and that people use common sense,” Wadden-Cappa said on May 10. “I think the whole country is on eggshells wondering if the numbers will spike again.”
Gordon MacCoy was in the hospital with bacterial pneumonia when COVID-19 cases started being confirmed in South Korea in February.
At first, there were 35-40 cases but when the Sydney native was released from hospital a week and a half later, things were more serious having spread across the nation.
“Most of the cases here have been traced to one woman. She is patient 31, they call her the ‘Super Spreader,’” said MacCoy from his home in Seoul where he lives with his wife and dogs.
“(Patient 31) is a member of Shincheonji, a religious cult that is a sect of Christianity… She was told to self-isolate because she had symptoms and she said no, she wouldn’t because she hadn’t traveled to China.”
The religious group will not condone missing services for any reason, including illness although they have since stopped meetings in South Korea to help stop the spread of the virus. Patient 31 continued to attend Shincheonji weekly meetings, packed with thousands of people in venues so packed people can only sit on the floor.
The meetings attended in the city of Daegu seem to be the epicentre of the nation’s outbreak.
“In Korea, we have 10,000 cases, but I think 7,500 of them are in Daegu,” MacCoy said. “Something like 7,000 cases go back to this woman. (Shincheonji members) would do their service, they kiss on the cheek, shake hands and then they leave and bring (the virus) back to other cities… And they spread it across the country.”
Schools were closed and the government asked people to stay home. Employers allowed people to work from home while restaurants remained open as did many stores. Nightclubs were closed in April.
No laws were needed to get people to social distance and stay at home. MacCoy said Koreans believe they have a duty to protect others and opted to not go out.
By the end of April, the number of new cases dropped to 20-30 a day and most were detected at the airport where residents are tested upon arrival (foreign travellers must immediately go to a hotel for 14 days).
“(April 29) was the first day we had no domestic cases (since the first case was confirmed on Feb. 20). There were four cases detected in Korea but they were all at the airport, people coming into the country,” MacCoy said.
Some universities, like Sejong where MacCoy teaches, are continuing with online classes for the rest of the semester while others opened last week. High schools were supposed to open this week, with other levels following, but fears of a second wave of COVID-19 infections may delay this.
Nightclubs had reopened. Over the weekend a new outbreak has started, linked to one man who was asymptomatic and went to five gay clubs in Itawon, Seoul. The day after he felt ill and was tested. To date, the government has traced him to spreading the virus to 80 other people.
“Being gay still gets stigmatized in Korea. It’s not really accepted,” MacCoy said. “So it’s a really bad situation. Conservative Koreans are blaming gay people now.”
Contact tracing in South Korea is very thorough — each time a person tests positive for COVID-19, everyone in the country with a cell phone gets a text telling them and where the person had been.
On Monday, MacCoy said these alerts were constant and they had one about an earthquake near the border between North Korea.
“Earthquakes, COVID-19, almost WWIII with Iran, failed impeachment, killer hornets, half of Australia burned, locust plagues in Africa – 2020 sucks,” MacCoy said.
Darlene Sparling is enjoying her COVID-19 lockdown time because of the quality time she’s getting with her partner and 23-month-old son.
The Sydney native has been living in Tulum, Mexico, for 12 years after meeting her partner Carlos Leufente while on vacation. When she met the artist from Argentina on the beach, Sparling was teaching at Harbourview Montessori School in Westmount.
Now she teaches yoga and works in operations at Amansala Yoga Fitness Retreat Centre, owns a clothing line called Bohemian Lover and does short term rentals.
However, after COVID-19 cases started spreading across the country and Mexico enforced its stay-at-home measures, all hotels have been closed and Sparling is out of work.
“We get a lot of emails from New Yorkers wanting to escape to paradise but no one will take them,” she said.
“If (hotels) are caught selling alcohol or not practicing social distancing and they are publicly shamed. Three have been shut down because they were found to be selling alcohol and hosting a party.”
When Mexico’s first two COVID-19 cases were confirmed on Feb. 29, the country started locking down in stages. Sparling said she was worried at first until she noticed her neighbours and the government taking a unified front to fight the virus.
“Usually the Mexican government gets a bad rap outside of the country. And inside it too sometimes,” Sparling said. “But the way they’re all working together and creating (programs to help people) has been really great to see.”
There is an 8 p.m. curfew in place, which Sparling said is mostly for people working outside of the home as no one is allowed out except for necessities.
“(Police) stopped me on the way to the grocery store and took my name, checked my card and asked me where I was going and confirmed with my grocery bags that yes, I was grocery shopping,” she said.
“Curfew, you don’t have a choice. The cops will arrest you.”
There have been shortages of sugar, black beans and beer. Currently, there are no sweet potatoes or broccoli and Sparling had to start ordering diapers and wipes online for her son.
All stores are now requiring shoppers to wear masks and gloves. Restaurants can only sell take-out and Sparling said a new business has opened in her area with “people on motorcycles who will do you errands for you.”
Mexico is getting ready to start re-opening the country and their economy next week, with hopes of having their automative sectors starting on May 18.
‘I have reconnected with my partner and I’m really enjoying getting to spend all day with my son.’
Darlene Sparling ‘Earthquakes, COVID19, almost WWIII with Iran, failed impeachment, killer hornets, half of Australia burned, locust plagues in Africa – 2020 sucks,’
Gordon MacCoy
However, it’s unclear when hotels and tourism will resume which means life will continue to be a little slower for Sparling and her family. Something she doesn’t seem to mind.
“I have reconnected with my partner and I’m really enjoying getting to spend all day with my son,” she said. “In a way, this lockdown has been a good thing for us.”
Mitch Ramsay-Madar is looking forward to some lockdown orders being lifted in Australia on Wednesday as COVID-19 cases in the country stay low.
However, the Caper who now lives in Melbourne with his partner Quincy Cheng hasn’t been too impressed with how some people were treating pharmacists in Canada because of changes to prescription dispensing during the pandemic.
“My mom is a pharmacist and she was telling me how people were yelling at her and what they were saying to her. It made me so angry I wrote that letter to the Cape Breton Post,” said RamsayMadar who grew up on Mira Road.
“People don’t understand it’s not the pharmacist’s fault they can only give one refill at a time. They are still doing their work, they still have their costs, they can’t help what is happening during a pandemic.”
The 27-year-old’s anger over the situation has dissipated but he does still worry about his family in Cape Breton as he watches COVID-19 cases continue to increase in Canada.
In Australia as of Monday, 98 per cent of active cases were mild. Only 16 of them were considered serious. Ramsay-Madar thinks Australia’s success at containing the virus is due to the government’s unified response.
Both political parties worked together to create stay-at-home legislation and enforced social distancing rules dictating people must stay 1.5 meters apart.
When the country’s first case was confirmed in late January, the country banned all travel to and from China. Cases remained low in February then spiked in March which led to the country’s stay-at-home orders.
For about a week and a half after this, RamsayMadar said he was worried. Grocery store shelves were becoming empty and at one point it was difficult to get meat.
“We bought a leg of lamb one day because it was the only meat we could find,” said Ramsay-Madar, who noted restrictions in Australia allowed two people from a household to shop together.
From March 13 to March 23, cases continued to rise. By April 2, the numbers were declining and now there are only a few detected daily as phase one of lockdown restrictions are set to begin.
Phase one includes allowing up to five people to come to your home and the opening of the border between Australia and New Zealand to form a “transTasman bubble.”
He thinks the Canadian government could learn from the way Australia has dealt with the pandemic. To him, they’ve proven a unified front works better than a divisive one where opposition politicians are criticizing the work of the leading party while the curve isn’t flattened.
Jason MacDonald and his wife Katsura took their two-year-old daughter out of daycare as soon as Japan asked residents to stay home due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Although there were confirmed cases of the highly contagious virus since January, it wasn’t until April 7 that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced a state of emergency and asked people to stay home as much as possible.
MacDonald, who grew up in Sydney and East Bay, has a pre-existing condition, vasculitis, which causes inflammation in blood vessels. This put MacDonald in a high risk of severe complications if he contracts the virus and his family wasn’t taking chances.
“We took Leanna out right away. We didn’t want her getting sick and we didn’t want her possibly bringing it home,” he said. “But there are many people here who aren’t staying home… Because of World War II, by law, the Japanese government can’t make laws forcing people to do things like staying at home. They can only ask them.”
For the past six years, MacDonald has lived on Okinawa, a tropical island in the south of Japan. It’s a tourist area and he and his wife had recently launched a video production and digital marketing company, securing five of 15 businesses needed for their growth.
However, as COVID-19 cases have spread across the country, vacation bookings have decreased on the island and MacDonald said their clients “dropped like flies.”
“Hopefully we can find some new companies to sign on,” said MacDonald who also has a clothing brand called Okilife which is still operating.
“We have a lot of American military who buy our clothing and they haven’t been affected by (COVID-19 shutdowns). This is letting us hang in there while our new business has slowed.”
MacDonald and his family were planning on coming to Cape Breton in December, but changed their trip to August when weather would be better. Right now, they’re having to dip into their savings for the trip and are hoping travel restrictions will be lifted before then.
“Leanna is two and no one has met her yet,” he said, admitting he does worry about the virus and his family in Cape Breton. “My grandmother is in Parkland (long-term care home) and she hasn’t been able to have a visitor in over two months. Two months when you are 93 is a very long time.”
“We bought a leg of lamb one day because it was the only meat we could find.”
Mitch Ramsay-Madar “We took Leanna out right away. We didn’t want her getting sick and we didn’t want her possibly bringing it home.”
Jason MacDonald