Hunting For Supplies, And Growing Death Counts - Life In Lockdown, Day 5

zacknorman97 (66)in OCD • 5 years ago

Credits to: GIPHY

Well, I hoped that this would be a more positive post, but its pretty hard these days, and the facts speak for themselves. Since my last lockdown update, Malaysia had 900 confirmed cases, and 2 deaths. Now, just 3 days later, we have over 1300 cases, and 10 deaths. In fewer days, we've managed to record 5 times the body-count, over a silent killer that we can't yet cure.

Already, Malaysia has the 3rd highest Covid-19 outbreak in Asia, behind China and South Korea. That's a staggering amount, and it doesn't look like its slowing down. So, if you've been ignorant or dismissive about the dangers of Covid-19, now is a good time to sit down, and think. As for life under the Malaysian Government's movement-control order, some things have changed.

Credits to: Bing Covid-19 Tracker

For starters, it looks like the lockdown enforcement is already becoming more potent, and it seems to have successfully curbed people from moving about unnecessarily. From my apartment, I can see one of the main arteries between the usually bustling capital of Kuala Lumpur, and the large town of Rawang in the north, where many people call home.

From the window, I can observe traffic building up at around 6-ish in the evening, as people flock from their glass offices back to the comforts of a humid, tropical home. Traffic jams are common, as rows of headlights just pile on each other. Those were the good old days, and now the roads are empty, and seeing cars are a rare sight now.

Credits to: MalaysiaKini (Cases across Peninsula, and East Malaysia)

The barren roads are a result of new, tougher checkpoints, and there's a good reason for that. Starting from today, the 22^nd of March, the Malaysian Army has been deployed to enforce police checkpoints, and to make sure that the whole country understands what a "lockdown " actually means. Due to some ignorant people moving about for no reason, the whole population is now under a harsher curfew, as I had feared.

Overall movement has been restricted, and there's been a new directive that only one person per family is allowed to leave for getting essentials. 7-Elevens across the country, with their bright lights beaming into the dark, early mornings, have been ordered to open at certain hours only. This is a similar measure for petrol stations and other 24-hour businesses.

It's now tougher going than usual, but we're still coping. One thing that we'd want to see, is some financial help from the government. I don't want to sound like I'm asking for free money, but with a 2-week containment that could possibly be extended - not getting any salary would be detrimental in the long run, especially for lower income families.

Credits to: MalayMail (Malaysian Army, 502nd Territorial Regiment, awaiting coordination with the Royal Police)

While on the subject of what the government could do, I've read some interesting opinions online on how they could do more on slowing down Covid-19. This all has to do with the controversial deployment of the Army to back-up checkpoints, as some people think that's not enough, and I can agree with that.

You can read them here and here, on how the full resources of the Armed Forces, not just the Army, can be used. In summary, it's an imagination of what happens when the Covid-19 cases inevitably rise, and it could potentially cause more disruptions that expected for civilian authorities, causing a nightmare scenario. Patrolling might not be enough...

Military hospitals can provide relief for the civilian healthcare network, while engineers can be sent to help build temporary shelters or trauma tents, or deploying aircraft to lift supplies for rural areas, or even for CASEVACs of people in dire need of medical attention. As some experts have put it, we're at war with Covid-19, and just as how a nation can rally against a common enemy, humankind can do the same.

Online delivery services, either for food or groceries, have been completely swamped. Even if we wanted to do some online grocery shopping, it could take days or weeks. Thankfully, mom and I have been out shopping for supplies beforehand, and there's a local mini-mart within a 5-minute walk.

This is a picture of our shopping basket in its prime; filled with goodies that we've been depleted of. Note, if you have a foot-fetish, or you just don't like sandals, then please look away… Though at least I don't wear any socks. Here, we've got some rice, a staple of Asian home cooking; many eggs, cooking oil, canned beans, canned fishes, some instant noodles, and a pack of spaghetti.

Not being a photogenic person, I've not taken many pictures, but I'm starting to understand its significance. I'll make sure to take more photos next time. On the other aspects of my personal life, it's been doing well, and after having used both HIVE and Steemit, I didn't notice any crucial difference in using it.

Specifically, I use Peakd and Steempeak, all for its user interface alone. Everything is much better for the eyes, including the editor, which has saved me a lot of time and frustration on writing posts. Otherwise, as someone described it well, being on both ends of the chain is like being stuck in between a parallel universe. Personally, I'm still having fun, and I'm still happy to be seeing you around, regardless if you're on Team Red, or Team Green.

Your enjoyment is my pleasure. On another note, I was going to post this yesterday, after sharing some thoughts on BMW's recent concept car. However, the nascence of HIVE meant that its glitches and slowness created a rather unpleasant experience.

But since then, the lads and lassies working behind the scenes have been doing a swell job, with HIVE and Peakd working beautifully now. This is all from me today, and I hope that you've enjoyed this post. With a global pandemic spreading around us, remember to keep yourself, and your loved ones safe. I'd like to hear some of your lockdown stories as well!