The First Day Of The Corona Lockdown In My Hometown

I live in the German city of Hamburg with over a million inhabitants, and today is the first day of the Corona Lockdown in our town.

The neighborhood seems to be extinct

Today, on Monday, 16.03.2020, would be the first day of school after the end of the two-week spring holidays.

The day before yesterday, the authorities announced that all schools and kindergartens would be temporarily closed until 29.03. However, it can be assumed that the closures will be significantly extended if the situation does not ease significantly, which is not currently expected.

Since the weekend, not only universities, theatres, concert halls, museums, and libraries have been closed, but also bars, clubs, casinos, brothels, youth centers, fitness studios, and sports facilities such as football pitches and stadiums.

In general, all events and gatherings have been banned since Sunday. This applies regardless of the number of participants. Previously, activities were only prohibited if the number of participants exceeded 1000.

Employers are advised to allow their employees to work in the home office. This is especially necessary because many parents now face the problem that their children cannot be looked after during the day.

The government urgently advises against taking the little ones to their grandparents, as it is precisely older people who should be protected from the virus.

Almost no rush hour traffic in our street

On the street where I live, there is always a lot of traffic in the morning. Usually, dozens of cars leave all the underground car parks of the rental houses between seven and nine in the morning. At the same time, the street fills up with cars of commuters who work nearby.

Those who do not drive by car have to pass our apartment to get to the nearest train station. Typically there is always a seemingly endless procession of pedestrians in the morning in the direction of the train station.

Also, in the daycare center across the street, there is always a lot going on in the morning. Parents bring their children by car or bicycle, and this traffic mixes with commuters from outside and departing tenants from the neighborhood.

But today everything is different. Only occasionally do neighbors drive to work. Most seem to stay at home — even pedestrians on the way to the train I hardly see. The otherwise so busy activity in front of the daycare center is not there today and will not be for at least the next two weeks.

Due to the lack of commuters, there are remarkably many parking spaces available in our street today.

Shelves in supermarkets are often empty since Friday

It started with the discounters, and now the development has also reached more expensive supermarkets. Toilet paper and noodles are often sold out, but other goods are also increasingly bought in stock.

On Saturday there was hardly any milk, few fresh vegetables, no whipped cream and no frozen peas left in our nearest supermarket.

Probably many other things were also entirely or almost sold out, but I noticed them because they were on our shopping list.

I have no idea why you should hoard whipped cream of all things. It doesn’t last long enough to stockpile for two weeks.

Time and again, the media report that it is unnecessary to stockpile for several weeks at the moment because the supply chains are intact, and empty shelves are filled the next day at the latest yet. But people behave irrationally and still buy the supermarkets empty.

Some still do not understand

On Saturday night, there was a loud party one house over. There must have been twenty people at this party, and all of them were young people between thirty and forty years old. You could tell because the party was on the balcony and the curtains in the apartment were open.

I don’t usually object to parties in the neighborhood. I also don’t mind if it gets loud, and the party goes on into the night.

But this time, I was stunned. All the experts are urgently calling for social distancing to slow down the pace of the virus spread and thus save the health system from collapsing.

Why the hell can’t people in such a situation give up their fun for a while?

Don’t these people have grandparents or parents who belong to one of the risk groups?

The closure of the bars and clubs in the city was also necessary because still on Saturday night, thousands of people celebrated carefree on the Reeperbahn, in the entertainment district of Hamburg.

Starting tomorrow, my wife will also be doing home-office

I usually am alone at home writing while my wife is sitting in the office.

On the weekend my wife received an e-mail from her employer. On Monday, so today, all employees can take their work equipment home and work in the home office from Tuesday. The IT department worked through the weekend to create the technical conditions for this.

Many companies in the city and throughout Germany are currently taking similar measures.

The next two weeks

I expect further restrictions on public life and that the virus will also appear in my immediate environment. Public hysteria may well increase, and authorities may decide to ration the amount of food per person.

Already some supermarkets are selling limited quantities of specific goods per customer so that everyone gets something.

I also expect that our tour operator will contact us soon and cancel our booked trip for June. Furthermore, I suppose. That school closures and the restricted freedom of assembly will last longer than the two weeks planned so far.

According to experts, the number of reported new infections will continue to rise sharply for another nine to ten days before the lockdown becomes noticeable, and the numbers fall — but only if everything goes well.

Update: I was just shopping. The people who didn’t drive to work today apparently all went shopping this morning. Many things, like toilet paper or margarine, are sold out. Many other items are only available sporadically.

A few minutes ago, I got the message that my cousin and her family are now in quarantine because they had contact with an infected person.

So the hysteria is already increasing noticeably, and the first quarantine case has occurred in my family.

How are you doing these days? Are you directly affected, or do you have family members in quarantine? How do you experience the changes in the public life of your city?

Tell me about it in the comments. Let’s talk about what this crisis is doing to each one of us.

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