The quarantine where we live here in Chiriqui Province was lifted on June 1, 2020 as advertised. We are now allowed out from 5 am to 7 pm every day, and we are actually allowed out together. At first this was a real novelty and it has been great to go out, but there are still very few places to go, and not a lot of things to do other than grocery shopping, picking up mail, and picking up take-out. (Thanks to Mike’s Global Grill and Big Daddy’s for the great food and friendship!) Masks are required when we are out, and most places will take your temperature and give you hand sanitizer before you can enter. We have no problem with this, everything that helps keep us and others safe and healthy is a small price to pay. We still spend most of our time at home, reading, exercising, working on our Spanish, and this and that. Still not great, but most definitely an improvement over the total quarantine!
The number of daily cases here in Panamá have been increasing almost every day since the quarantine was relaxed. We cannot tell you how disheartening this has been. We feel like we have endured one of the strictest quarantines in the world for nothing! There are even a couple of places in other provinces where the quarantines have been reinstated. It seems like this is happening for several reasons: people here (and probably everywhere) just find it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to social distance, people live in too close quarters to make social distancing possible, there has not been sufficient follow up contact tracing, and there has been not been sufficient testing. Testing here has increased lately, and this partially explains the increase in positive tests, but this community spread is turning into a huge problem, here and around the world.
We really hope this situation starts to resolve; we are really looking forward to a trip back to the States as soon as the borders open. We are hoping to buy plane tickets soon, we are waiting for when we can travel safely (relatively) and without undue restrictions.
We finally want to say a word about George Floyd. What happened to him was very wrong; it does not matter what he did nor what happened beforehand, to watch him get killed with his face pushed into the asphalt and a knee on the back of his neck was horrifying. Hopefully, some changes for the better will start to come about.
We hope everyone is staying safe and healthy!
Saludos, Craig