Week in paradise followed by 14 days in quarantine
When my family and I set off on a glorious Hawaiian holiday on March 8, we never expected to return to pandemonium.
Yet, that’s exactly what we came back to on March 15 — an upheaval of life pinned to the uncharted territory of the novel coronavirus.
Each of us — my wife, Kerry, our kids, Alex, 27, and Grace, 17, and I — are now in 14-day voluntary quarantines.
The word voluntary hardly figures into this. We would be social pariahs if we attempted to return to our normal lives before March 30.
At issue here is that we were out of the country on March 13.
Anyone who arrives in Canada after March 13 from any international destination, including the United States, is asked by the Public Health Agency of Canada to stay at home for 14 days to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Just because we were out of the country after March 13 doesn’t mean we have coronavirus, but it does mean we could have been exposed to it, at the airport in Honolulu, in a restaurant, on an excursion or in a store.
However, until March 30, my wife, our son, our daughter and I basically have to isolate ourselves as if we have the virus.
None of us is showing any symptoms of having the virus — fever, cough or difficulty breathing — but we have to act as if we’re contagious.
It’s what has to be done in the global effort to further prevent the spread of this pandemic, which has essentially paralyzed the world with fear.
I’m writing this article from home because I’m not going into The Daily Courier newsroom until March 30.
My wife, a sales representative with Bell Media radio stations Virgin, EZ Rock and AM1150, is also working remotely.
Our son, Alex, who works in the student housing department at UBC Okanagan, was told by his employer to stay away from work for two weeks in keeping with its policy mirroring the federal recommendation.
Alex doesn’t live with us anymore, and it’s sure to get lonely in his onebedroom apartment with his girlfriend away in New Zealand for three months for work.
However, he can come over and see us at our house any time, because the isolation mandate doesn’t include those who you travelled with.
Our daughter, Grace, is in her graduating year at Immaculata High School, which has two-week spring break right now.
So, the break conveniently coincides with the 14-day quarantine.
However, she’ll miss shifts working at her part-time jobs at Antico Pizza and Bylands Garden Centre, not be able to see any of her friends and not be able to have any of the fun usually associated with spring break.
After all, this quarantine includes not going anywhere you might infect others, from work, school, church and daycare to athletic events, the grocery store, health-care facilities, restaurants, malls and any social gathering, big or small.
Isolation also means not taking public transit.
It’s OK to order groceries or food online for pickup or delivery.
Thankfully, my wife’s friend, Liana, did some shopping for us and dropped off groceries on Sunday.
However, she stood outside our back door as she did so, keeping the twometre distance recommended for those in 14-day quarantine.
My wife has since ordered more groceries online with Save-On-Foods.
The home delivery option wasn’t available because the store is too busy, presumably because of the coronavirus frenzy.
We’ll be able to pick up our online grocery order at the store at noon Friday, the first time available.
Rest assured, a 14-day voluntary quarantine is not a holiday.
Sure, we’re at home, but we’re working remotely and we can’t do most of the things we enjoy, such as going to the gym, seeing friends, going out for dinner and basically just leading a normal life.
We can certainly use this time for personal reflection about how COVIDcrazy the world has become, snuggle our pooch Benji (experts say there’s no evidence pets can transmit the disease to humans) and take him for a hike as long as we maintain the two-metre distance from other people.