Oh, my what a day! I’m involved in projects in three different departments these days, so believe it or not, I go to all three department meetings on Thursday. Between those meetings and editing the video for our online church service I was hopping.
While I was delivering the video to the church office, I saw two posts that our local news site had posted on Instagram.
First, that the mosques are opening. This is huge! Some services of prayer have been closed for over a year now!
View this post on Instagram
Next I saw that restaurants are reopening for indoor dining.
View this post on Instagram
Now, we have been a bit closed for sometime and it seemed likely it would continue, since the cases have been on the rise since December. In February we averaged the highest number of cases all year and February was also the deadliest month we’ve seen in Bahrain.
This chart shows good news. The cases are going down for the past week, but they are still higher than most of the year. Is that all it took to open everything?
Maybe vaccinations have influenced the openings, as well. We’re doing great, but I don’t think they call that herd immunity yet.
Then at 5:00 p.m. we received an email from school saying that blended learning will begin again on Sunday.
OK. I didn’t see that coming!
I love the charts! It is so important for us to hear about the pandemic from other countries’ points of view. I hope that your blended learning goes well on Sunday!
Thank you, Chrissy. I like reading about other countries too.
Like you, Denise, I think the push to reopen is premature, but I suspect the fear of losing spring break and summer tourism is driving the push to reopen in many places. Love seeing the photo of the mosque. Gorgeous.
Yes, I know it has been really difficult here without tourists, especially from those across the causeway in Saudi. They are the great majority of tourists, so the hospitality industry has suffered during the past year.
This is a picture of the Al Fateh Grand Mosque.
Your post is the second today describing this unexpected roll back to the virtual school that has consumed us all. I am hoping it is a quick blip on the path forward.
Thank you, Anita.
I guess I neglected to say what we had been doing in school. For the past 5 weeks, all students have been studying virtually. Now, the ones who were in school two days a week will come back. It’s still a minority of the students–most have chosen to learn from home this year.
You identified the main reason that so many places are [FOOLISHLY!!] open – this sense that things are improving. “The cases are going down for the past week” – it doesn’t seem to matter at all how those numbers compare with the trends over all. Unbelievable. Stay strong, healthy, and masked!
Thank you, Maureen. Again, I am thankful I’m not in a full-time position and don’t have to be there for all the classes! Also, thankful for the vaccines we have received, and hopefully better news in the future.
I guess it’s all so unknown and some countries are dealing with it in different ways, according to their governments, medical advice or whatever they choose to listen to and follow. I hope it works out for where you are, although I think I would find blended learning very, very difficult to handle!