The headline in The Straits Times was a grim reminder of the pandemic with the news that the world death toll will cross a million deaths over this weekend. It was such a sobering reminder to what is happening across the world and according to the World Health Organisation, it is possible that the final tally may even be close to or exceed the 2 million mark. The total infections tally as of yesterday is more than 32 million with the top four countries comprising of the United States, India, Brazil and Russia accounting for nearly 60% of all infected cases.

Many European countries are reporting a second surge which is worrying. India has been reporting the highest daily cases, again another worrying trend. What this pandemic has done to the world economy, most people already know. Economists say the economic repurcussions is about three times as bad as the global financial crisis of 2008 in terms of GDP decline on an annual basis. Though its not as bad as the Great Depression of the 1930s, but it is the worst downturn in the world since then. However, all is not lost. Changes will be made and this will not only accelerate technology adoption and usage, but also a turn towards a more green economy.

In other news, both GG & BB got their first semester results this week. GG did very well and hopefully should continue her good streak. BB on the other hand, did really badly, barely passing all his subjects. Hopefully this is a wake-up call for him and he can work hard for the remaining semesters and pull up his cumulative GPA. Without this kick in the backside, he was getting to be overconfident, so it’s better perhaps that this happened now and not later. He does need to buck up and fast if he wants a place in a local university in the course of study of his choice.

That’s all from us this week. We are going to be in the last quarter for the year and I have to start my planning for 2021 which I hope is a much better year for all compared to 2020. Stay safe people!

And another week is gone. Sometimes it feels that 2020 is rushing by, which is probably a good thing, right, given how this year has turned out. What’s surprising is that this is happening even as most of us are stuck at home.

In Singapore, in the past week, daily cases have been dropping at a steady rate and we are hoping that Phase 3. Currently we are still in Phase 2 which is the phase where there is gradual resumption of activities in a phased manner and Phase 3 will be the new normal which will remain in place till an effective vaccine or treatment course for Covid-19 is developed. I am hopeful that we get into Phase 3 at least by the end of 2020. Also, given the low number of daily cases, I am now feeling slightly hopeful that when school reopens for GG & BB in mid-October, they will go back to school on a full-time basis as opposed to the hybrid model they had in the previous semester.

India on the other hand, is getting worse. Worldwide, the numbers have breached the 30 million mark and India has more than 5 million confirmed cases, behind the US which leads the world at about 6.5 million cases. The daily number of cases in India is also very high, with daily cases reaching close to 100,000 daily and is said to on the course to overtake the US as the country with the highest number of positive cases sooner than later.

Herd immunity is usually brought about by a vaccine or through natural immunity after a sizeable number of people gets infected and then help block the virus spread. Some epidemiologists believe that herd immunity is already taking place in small areas in India where high infection levels have been followed by a weakening of the Covid-19 virus. Others believe that it is too soon to predict or holds little promise. While the concept of natural herd immunity remains untested and even controversial because of the greater risk of mortality, recent Indian sero surveys have indicated that the virus spread is far more than official statistics have revealed in India. A sero-prevalence survey by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) found that India had an estimated 6.4 million infections in May, when official figures at mid-month put the number of positive cases at 85,940. Epidomologists believe that In areas with dense populations, the virus came under control when it reached 55 per cent to 60 per cent of those infected and new case formation reduced considerably. Many of the so called containment areas of the past now produce very little cases.

I just hope and pray things get better in India. When I see and hear about all this, I worry, almost on a constant basis, for my elderly parents who are stuck in Mumbai. They can’t even move out of the city becase of their health. Hopefully things get better in early 2021 and they can move to the retirement community they want to move to soon.

This was our week, hope you all had a better week! Stay safe everyone!

The inevitable has happened! India has now edged out Brazil to have the dubious distinction of being the country with the second highest number of COVID cases. The numbers as of yesterday were more than 4.5 million cases in total, about 3.5 million people who have recovered, slightly over 76,000 deaths and probably close to a million active cases. The US as usual leads the world numbers, but I can see the trend line reducing, while that of India’s is actually increasing. This is seriously worrying. What is more worrying is that my home state of Maharashtra leads the country’s statistics with a total of almost a million cases, which makes almost a quarter of all cases in India from this state. Nearly 700,000 recovered cases, about 28,000 deaths and about a quarter million active cases.

I am not able to get more detailed information for Maharashtra, but I do know that Mumbai is one of the worst hit cities in the country. And it is not surprising, given the large number of migrant workers who come to the city in search of a living and who live in really bad and cramped conditions with little running water or sanitation.

I am sure there are many like me who live outside India and have elderly parents living alone in the country and who are worried sick at the news that comes out daily. My parents, like most of the elderly have other conditions, which an exposure to the virus may excabate. My daily prayer is that my parents get out of this well and somewhat healthy. This is why, even though I don’t really like the idea of them moving out of Mumbai, I am happy that they will finally move to a retirement community once things get better. They plan to stay for a month with an aunt who already lives there and who has offered to host them so they get a chance to get acclimated to the place. Once there, they can also look at options available and buy their own apartment. Then they will come back to Mumbai, wrap up things and move there permanently. This is for their best, in the long run since they will have access to family and friends around as well as a 24-hour medical attention, should the need arise.

In other news, there’s no real news. After about five-six months, BB finally met his besties. They used to be called the three musketeers in school and now that secondary school is over, all three are doing different things. So it’s only during holidays they get a chance to meet up and given the situation this year, they met after a really long time. This is not to say they don’t talk or do do video calls regularly. They do that practically daily and play games together, so they are talking all the time, it’s just they haven’t met each other physically!

That’s about it from us. Stay safe everybody!

BB & GG have both started their holidays and I have made it my mission to start them on some exercise regime. Before we know it, BB will be called up for his national service commitments and I want him to be as fit as possible before he enlists. Let’s see how much I can push him to improve his health.

Singapore’s COVID cases have been dipping and slightly increasing, but so far, touch wood, our total daily cases have been below 100, with most days the count being below 50 and our daily community cases being single digits. I also know that Singapore’s active cases are now less than 1000, which is good news for us as a nation. This essentially means that less than a thousand cases are either still in hospital or still being treated.

India, on the other hand, has an exploding crisis in their hands. I am reading the reports almost daily and seeing the daily number of cases increase every day is really frightening. As of yesterday, India had reported more than 4 million cases with more than 125 thousand deaths, about 850 thousand active cases and slightly over 3 million recovered cases. This shows that as of yesterday, about a quarter of confirmed cases have recovered.

But I have also heard anecdotely about how hospitals and COVID specific clinics are fleecing patients and inflating cases. So I am a bit in a bind whether to actually believe these numbers or no. What I have heard is that if testing centres get about 10 swabs to test, they make sure that they confirm at least 7-8 swabs to be positive cases so that they can earn money from the treatment of these seven odd cases purely for profit. Again, this is all completely anecdotal and has been gathered when speaking and texting with family and friends in India and from forwards sent from WhatsApp university.

The rest of our week was the usual, with everyone in front of their laptops, working and playing. On one hand, I am loving this work and study from home as this is probably the first time I am getting so much one on one time with S and the children, but at the same time, because of this enforced closeness, we sometimes get on each other’s nerves. Oh well, c’est la vie!

This was what we did this week, hopefully everyone is safe and is practising safe and social distancing as well as masking themselves when they are out of their homes. See you all next week and enjoy your weekend.

Is it just me or do any of you think the way I do? I have been feeling like life has been speeding up since we are all locked up at home. It just felt like it was a Monday and now we are back to Sunday!

I had mentioned about my parents moving out of Bombay last week and something happened this week that pretty much consolidated this idea. Around mid-morning when my mum was cleaning the kitchen, a section of the ceiling collapsed and fell down. Lucklily she was nowhere near that area and was saved and since it was in the middle of the kitchen, the counter and her cabinets were also saved. The only casualty seems to be the ceiling fan in the kitchen where one arm was twisted. So now once things get better, they will go and stay with my aunt who is already there and perhaps rent an apartment for a few months and experience living there in a senior retirement community and if they like it, will start the paperwork to purchase an apartment of their own and then return back to Bombay to start the moving process.

The children are either having their exams like BB or will have the exams next week. Once the exams are done, they will be ona break till mid-October when they will hopefully, go back to school, for physical lessons. As of now nothing about this is yet known, but one can hope.

Life is on-going ontherwise, I have no real complaints. But I am now starting to get stir-crazy a bit after being cooped up at home more or less all the time. I avoid leaving the house unless necessary because of my pre-existing condition and the fact that I don’t really feel comfortable wearing the mandatory mask we have to put on each time we get out.

September is here and it looks like this will be our new normal for the rest of the year. So take care people and stay safe, stay masked and above all, maintain social distancing!