A couple of days back, the headline in The Straits Times screamed that the world had surpassed 5 million Covid-19 cases. Today we have surpassed 5.21 million cases with more than 338,000 dead and more than 2.05 million who have successfully beat the virus.

Today I heard that WHO has declared South America to be “a new epicentre”of the coronavirus panademic, following a surge in the number of infections of Covid-19. Brazil is at the forefront of these new infections with more than 310,000 positive cases and experts saying that because there is a lack of testing in the country, the real positive figures are much more. Today, Brazil ranks second in total positive cases behind the United States, having overtaken Russia. India ranks in at number 11 with over 125,000 cases, aroud 52,000 recovered and about 4,000 deaths. Singapore is ranked at number 26 with more than 31,000 positive cases, about 13,000 recovered and 23 deaths.

Countries where governments are easing up restrictions are seeing new surges in positive cases, which will probably lead to more clampdowns and further restrictions. Singapore will slowly start easing down the circuit breaker from 2 June and some retail establishments will start to reopen as will schools. For the graduating cohort, they will have to go to school every day, while the other classes will alternate between home based and classroom learning. The children will be screened before entering the school and they will have to wear a mask or face shield during their time in school, except when they have physical education lessons or are eating in the canteen. I am hoping and praying that the four weeks of the stage one of the easing of restrictions in Singapore does not lead to a new surge of cases and push us back to more severe restrictions.

After a month of fasting, Muslims around the world will be celebrating Ramadan Eid today and tomorrow. Wishing all my muslim readers a very happy Eid. Eid Mubarak to everyone reading this and celebrating the festival. As always, stay home and stay safe folks!

It’s the end of another week and we are (hopefully), getting closer to the end of this circuit breaker. The other day GG burst out saying she was sick and tired of being at home and wanted to go back to school. They have had around a month of classes online and I guess they will complete this term before a week’s term break before they finally start physical lecturers. I did some calculations and if this happens, they would have been at home for some seven months from the time of their last O level exam to the first day of physical school in Poly!

I am also quite fed up with this enforced break from work and school. As someone who loves being alone and is not scared of silence, I actually find the fact that everyone is at home and under my foot all day, every day quite unnerving! I am now looking forward to the day when everyone is out of the house and I get my home to myself!

R’s new employer has gotten approval to hire her and so sometime the end of next week will be her last day with us. She will probably know a couple of days in advance when she needs to go to her new employer’s home and will let us know then.

Singapore has more than 27,000 positive cases now and more than 99% of new cases which get reported daily are from worker dormitories. The cases in the community seem to be falling daily so there is cautious hope that come June 01, we will be able to start to lead a normal life, albeit the new normal being wearing masks at all times that you are outside the house and practising safe distancing. I have also read reports of experts saying that the COVID-19 is here to stay as long as there is no vaccine for the disease and you have even one person somewhere in the world still showing any sympotoms, we are all still at risk. There is a possibility, that even with a vaccine, the disease may never go away and will linger especially in the more vulnerable communities.

So stay home, especially if you are older or have any chronic condition. If you have someone close to you who fit these categories, make sure they stay safe!

Singapore is about six weeks into the circuit breaker and the government is now looking to start easing up on our lockdown starting next week. Some businesses will re-open, but our new normal will be to wear face masks outside our homes and social distancing enforced when outside. Students, especially those from graduating cohorts like those taking their national exams like the PSLE, O levels and A levels will be called back to schools in small groups for face-to-face lessons, but I understand if the students don’t want to come back to school, they will not be penalised.

Our new positive case totals have crossed the 22,000 mark with a majority of cases coming from workers residing in dormitories. With over 3 million workers in Singapore, I expect this to not reduce anytime soon, but I am hoping and praying that the healthcare frontliners are able to catch and contain positive cases and so things go back to a semblance of normalcy for everyone.

In other news, our helper of seven years has decided that since she is not really needed at our home, she will be moving on to help another family. We are sending her off with our blessings as I have been telling her that we don’t really need help now since the children are grown up now. This is a good time for her to move on so that both GG & BB start to do more household chores. As it stands now, they do the bare minimum and I don’t want a situation where, if they go out of Singapore to either study or work, they are one of those you see ridiculed on social media about having no concept of what constitutes household chores. So once things start to get better, she will move on to her new home and hopefully, we will still meet her during the days she is off from work or during any special celebrations. If she is still in Singapore, I definitely want her to be part of any celebrations in our family.

Healthwise, I just had a scare – I had some bloodwork done last week and my white blood cells were more than it is normal. After probing me, my primary care physican decided to have new blood taken, so she can get another reading. Apparently when you are sick, the white blood cells increase, but I am as healthy as I can be and if this second reading is also high, there is a chance that I may have to be tested to check if everything is ok with me. So I am keeping fingers crossed for the reports to be better this time around and this is also a wake-up call for me to start taking more self-care. I have been quite lax about my diet and exercise this last month or so and this is my wake-up call to start treating myself well.

Well, that’s all from me this week. Stay home, stay safe and let’s all work together so things go back to business as usual as soon as possible!

Singapore is done with four weeks of the circuit breaker and we head out to another four weeks from tomorrow. Cases, esepcially from the community and those from the dorms have reduced slightly and as of last night, we were at about 17,500 cases in total.

The children are done with week 2 of their home based learning and things are heating up slightly. One is always studying and the other barely bothers. When asked, says that they have done their work. S and I are sometimes flabbergasted that both are studying in the same year in poly, albeit in different polys and studying different subjects.

Otherwise things are the same day in and day out. Some days, when I wake up in the morning, I need to think for a few seconds before I figure out which day of the week it is. I am also attending some free webinars which is interesting and work is going on.

Life as we know it will be completely different once the world recovers from the panademic. This time has shown everyone that working from home is possible and people can be productive even at home. I am hopeful that once things start to go back to normal (or as normal we it can be), employers will be more receptive to people’s reasons for working from home.

Stay home and stay safe people!

As of now, Singapore has the highest number of Covid-19 positive cases in Southeast Asia. We are now in excess of 12,000 cases with the vast majority of cases now daily coming in from work permit holders who live in foreign worker dormitories. This is also due to the very aggressive testing that is being undertaken in the dormitories. A few days in the begining of the week saw more than 1,000 cases on a daily basis, but in the past few days, this number has been steadily decreasing, which is some consolation. Also, Singapore’s circuit breaker has now been extended for a month more till 1st June, so that’s another four more weeks of staying home.

The children finished their first week of school with Home Based Learning and this will go on for the whole term. Hopefully the circuit breaker is lifted in early June and they can actually start going to school. The school holidays has also been preponed to start from 4th May and school will resume when (hopefully) the circuit breaker ends in early June. The syllabus for the national exams this year has been cut across the board and I know some students are panicking about it!

Remember the video call I mentioned with my school classmates? We spoke with each other and most of us saw each other after a few decades! And as if this triggered some sort of switch, our WhatsApp grew exploded and people reached out to other classmates whom they were in touch with and got them to join the group. This past week has been very delighful with lots of old memories remembered and ignited. My hope is that when the situation stabilises, we have a full class reunion.

Stay home and stay safe everyone!