March 22, 2020 to April 4, 2020
BEEDAYS aka Days of Isolation
We left Edmonton on February 17, 2020 and arrived in Perth on February 19, 2020. We were aware of the virus which, at the time, was primarily based in China.
Below is a summary of COVID-19 events starting from our arrival in Perth to the week of March 22, 2020, the beginning of Beedays.
Two primary sources of information for the chronological sequence are from:
(1) the Australian Broadcasting Corporation article dated April 6, 2020, entitled "From Wuhan to Australia: A timeline of key events in the spread of the deadly coronavirus" and,
(2) the World Health Organization Situation Reports.
February 17, 2020 - The World Health Organization confirmed 71,429 cases globally of which 70,635 were in China and 794 outside of China; 1775 deaths globally of which 1772 were in China and three outside of China (one in France, one in Japan and one in the Philippines).
Ninety-nine cases are confirmed aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship (the highest concentration of cases outside of China).
February 19, 2020 - We arrived in Perth on February 19, 2020. Iran reported its first two coronavirus cases and hours later, deaths.
February 20, 2020 - South Korea reported its first death and two passengers from the Diamond Princess cruise ship died. (The ship eventually recorded 700 cases and 7 deaths);
February 21, 2020 – South Korea reports a 2nd death and a spike in cases to more than 200 (believed to be linked to patient ‘31’, a 61 year old woman who attended religious services).
February 22, 2020 – Italy records its first death and the first case of local transmission in the north region of Lombardy. (Italy had declared a state of emergency on January 31 and had suspended all flights to and from China).
February 25, 2020 – Dave’s first day of work.
February 26, 2020 - The World Health Organization says, "For the first time....there have been more cases reported from countries outside of China than from in China." The virus has now spread to more than 45 countries with Denmark, Estonia, Georgia, Greece, Norway, Pakistan, Romania and North Macedonia reporting their first cases.
February 29, 2020 - Australia activates its emergency plan. The U.S. recorded its first death.
March 1, 2020 – World Health Organization - Situation Report 41 - 87,137 confirmed cases globally (79968 in China and 7,169 outside of China).
March 7, 2020 – More than 102,000 cases reported worldwide with more than 3,500 deaths.
March 8, 2020 - Italy imposes quarantine measures in the north affecting 16 million people.
March 10, 2020 - All of Italy is placed in lockdown. Unprecedented travel restrictions are imposed on the 60 million people in the country.
March 11, 2020 - Pandemic declared
March 13, 2020 - Europe is the new epicentre of the pandemic.
March 14, 2020 - Spain imposes a lockdown and the U.S. declares coronavirus a national emergency. The Australian government advises against gatherings of more than 500 people urging them to be suspended from March 16, 2020 onwards; anyone arriving from overseas will be forced to self-isolate effective March 15, 2020; international cruise ships will not be allowed to dock on Australian shores for 30 days; and social distancing is encouraged including no handshakes.
March 16, 2020 - The states of Victoria and Western Australia declare a state of emergency.
March 17, 2020 - A ban is placed on Australians travelling abroad.
March 18, 2020 - Australians who want to return from overseas are urged to do so as soon as possible.
March 19, 2020 - Dave sets up an Excel spreadsheet and begins tracking, on a daily basis, the Global, Canada and Australia COVID-19 statistics.
March 20, 2020 - Australian borders close to all incoming non-citizens and non-residents. Dave's workplace restricts the worksite to essential personnel only.
March 21, 2020 - In Australia the New South Wales government comes under fire for allowing passengers from the Ruby Princess Cruise ship to disembark in Sydney on March 19, 2020. (In the next few days, almost 50 people who were on the ship are diagnosed with COVID-19). Canada's death toll jumps by almost 50% overnight with 19 deaths.
March 22, 2020 - Dave and I begin our 14 days of voluntary self-isolation and we start actively practicing social distancing in our weekly outing for groceries.
March, 23, 2020 - Effective noon (AEDT) all bars, clubs, restaurants, cinemas, places of worship, casinos and gyms are closed. Schools close in the state of Victoria.
We watched the world events unfold, as the number of global cases of COVID-19 jumped from 292,142 (1,600 deaths) to 1,051,697 (56,986 deaths) in just two weeks. Canada's confirmed cases went from 1048 (13 deaths) to 11,732 (152 deaths) and Australia's from 1,081 (7 deaths) to 5,454 (28 deaths) in that same two week period.
Dave spent hours with his camera taking photos in the house, playing with the camera settings. I spent time looking for free on-line drawing/painting tutorials and dabbled a bit with water colours. When we realized that our stay was going to be longer than planned, we started looking for new living accommodations. (Our Secret Harbour house was already booked for periods of time in April by other guests).
The weather was still pretty nice and the back yard became Dave's focus for picture taking.
(View of the back yard from the olive tree - lime tree to the right and flowering hedge-like shrub to the right):
Olive tree:
Neighbour's hibiscus tree:
The hedge-like shrub is literally a beehive of activity.
Dave took 269 photos on March 22nd; 110 photos on March 26th; and 148 photos on March 27th. He spent days going through pages of photos on his computer that looked like this:
He was looking for the perfect bee and he found these:
