Anonymous 2m 518 #covid19
The views of this article are the perspective of the author and may not be reflective of Confessions of the Professions.
Everything has changed since 2 March, 2020. On my way to work, I heard on the radio that the virus hit Russia, the first infected person had been found in Moscow region. Honestly, I did not pay any attention to that news because I thought that it would never reach dangerous proportions. Little did I know I would be wrong. In the beginning, everything was fine, Moscow was crowded, a vast majority of people was following their accustomed lifestyle. However, in a week, huge gatherings, events had gradually started to lower the number of individuals until the President claimed that the government would cancel them at all. That is how it has started in Russia.
Since I work in a hotel, my co-workers and I immediately felt the repercussions of the pandemic situation on us. COVID-19 had adversely affected hotel`s activity owing to closures and the resultant lack of tourists. In the end of March Putin said that from 28 March- to 5 April would be the non-working period, later President Putin extended the non-working period to 30 April. I was literally shocked, no one had ever imagined that we would face such gigantic changes in our life. Watching the pandemic situation in China, the USA, the UK is one thing, but being in nearly identical condition is quite another. Every day I monitored the changes and hoped for the best, but the situation continued to worsen. Almost every two weeks Putin continued to renew all previous restrictions, whereas people were looking forward to having their lives back.
What do we have now? Since 12 May the Governor implored people to wear face masks and gloves in public transport, stores and parks. In Moscow and in certain cities people are supposed to have digital passes in order to go to work, to hospital; in case a person have some issues (except work and hospital) they should order a digital pass and are allowed to do it twice per week. All passes, except for work, are valid for the rest of a given day.
It felt like an eternity, interminable prolongations of the «self-isolation regime», obligatory wearing of masks and gloves have an enormous pressure on us, especially given the fact that the Governor extended the restrictions until 14 June. People are absolutely exhausted by the current state of life.
However, I found myself thinking about merits of being isolated. First, I have started to dedicate much more time on self-development: I am learning foreign languages for a month, reading different books, and what is more important I took control of my diet and started working out several times a week. Some of us tend to say that they do not possess enough time to acquire new skills, lead a healthy lifestyle, read books, but now we have spare time that we can spend on us, thereby investing in our future. COVID-19 and all the related consequences have showed what is really essential for us and what is not. Every single situation is given to people in order to encourage them to rethink the actions, even the inaction, and COVID-19 is no exception, ponder it.
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