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Thought of the Day - June 1 - Back to School

Updated: Aug 15, 2021

So here we are, June 1st. Schools are now available for all children, joining the 5,000 or so kids of essential workers or needing extra support. Having a look through when has been published in the press, by the school board, and on the school websites, there is very little material mostly just circular links to existing documents. The gist of it seems to be, teachers are available but it is up to you if and when you send your kids back. On one side: send them if you need a break, or are heading back to work, send them back if the kids are sick of homeschooling. On the other side: remember the measures such as physical distancing, mask use, and ritual hygiene are pretty well impossible to enforce in a school setting, so if you have high-risk members of the family in your household you may want to hold off. That said, I assume that parents have been thinking about this for a while and have tapped into many additional resources via social media. Jogging by just as school broke for lunch I would guess about 20% of the kids are there today.


The main thing is this slow start means plenty of time to practice and streamline, ready for the real back-to-school at a later date.


As we have now turned the calendar page here is the list of key events (and BC case count) from the past month:

  • May 1 - Applications for $1,000 BC Emergency Benefit start. Two BC golf cases and Van Deusen opened. 1,00,000 recovered (2224);

  • May 2 - Facemasks mandatory on Eurostar. Petition starts in BC not to reopen hair salons (2232);

  • May 3 - Five million tablets of Hydroxychloroquine shipped from India to Toronto, as New England Journal of Medicine concludes it has no effect (2205);

  • May 4 - Children's PMDI defined. Canada pledges $850 million to global COVID-19 research (2224);

  • May 5 - UK has the highest death toll in Europe. Countries find cases before first reported. Quebec easing restrictions in seniors' facilities (2232);

  • May 6 - EU predicts economy contraction of 7.5%. Wage top-up for essential workers. BC provide re-opening list (2255);

  • May 7 - BC reports 170 "excess deaths" for March/April only 111 attributed to COVID-19. Troops deployed to care homes in Ontario and Quebec (2286);

  • May 8 - Canadian April unemployment rate 13% up over 5%. Montreal transit to hand out masks (2315);

  • May 9 - Army Navy store to close permanently. BC over 100,000 tests (2330);

  • May 10 - Cargill plant, south of Montreal, shutdown (2339);

  • May 11 - Wuhan to test all 11 million residents following new cases. Elon Musk reopens Tesla plant (2353);

  • May 12 - Canada over one million tests. China does one million in a day (2360);

  • May 13 - BC CDC launches COVID-19 survey and test/track registry (2376);

  • May 14 - Random antibody testing starting in Moscow.UN predicts pandemic will shrink world economy by 3.2% (2392);

  • May 15 - BC starts Phase II reopening (hair salons can reopen starting 19th). Outbreak in staff at Abbotsford Hospital (2407);

  • May 16 - Jericho Sailing Centre and Viking Sailing Club reopens. First Canadian clinical trials for a vaccine approved (2428);

  • May 17 - Lobster season opens in PEI. Snowbirds' plane crashes (2436);

  • May 18 - Cul-de-sac Victoria-Day recital. Over 8M receiving CERB (2444);

  • May 19 - US border ban extended to June 21. Over 100M people locked down in Jilin China. Trump announced as taking HCQ (2446);

  • May 20 - Civello hair salon reopens. Canada sees negative inflation rates (2467);

  • May 21 - UN launches "Verified" initiative to fight COVID-19 misinformation. Langley Lodge outbreak worsens (2479);

  • May 22 - Worldwide new cases now growing by over 100,000 a day (2507);

  • May 23 - Hertz files for bankruptcy protection. China for the first time reports zero new cases (2517);

  • May 24 - USA 100,000 deaths (2517);

  • May 25 - Applications now open for rent assist for small businesses CERCRA); Campsite demand crashes BC Parks website (2530);

  • May 26 - 15% of Canadian mortgages in deferral. Banks building up reserves for expected loan-losses (2541);

  • May 27 - Ontario taking over management of a number of care homes. Vancouver libraries start to reopen for pickup and drop-off (2550);

  • May 28 - South Korea reimposes restrictions. Trudeau co-hosting global UN conference concerning COVID-19 (2558);

  • May 29 - StatsCan announces Canadian GDP dropped 8.2% in Q1 2020. Cruise ship ban extended to end of October (2562);

  • May 30 - US terminates relationship with WHO. US riots continue to grow - potentially adding to COVID-19 spread (2573);

  • May 31 - Quebec announces 221 additional deaths (165 were missed) (2573).

This is now posted on the Timeline page. Also last month I posted December 2019 as well: https://clifffraser0.wixsite.com/covid-19/timeline-all


If you have any items of note that I may have missed, feel free to let me know.


So what will the future bring? More speculation on that in upcoming blogs.


Cheers

Cliff

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