Interviewing individuals from Canada, Mexico, Spain, and Australia on how the ongoing pandemic has altered their lives and the conditions of their country.
Written by: Danielle and Valerie
Introduction:
In this installment of our series on the impact of COVID-19 on the lives of the people experiencing this pandemic, we travel around the world from our neighbors in Canada and Mexico, across the ocean to Spain, and finally to the country of Australia in the Southern Hemisphere. In our previous posts, we have focused on domestic cases, involving individuals from a variety of backgrounds within the United States. While there is variation in how states have handled the pandemic, it is interesting to note the differences and similarities between countries. However, in order to accurately report the overall changes forced upon us by the coronavirus, we must push beyond our borders into other countries, for insight on how they are enduring these trying times.
Canada
Through their outbreak update, the Canadian government reports that as of September 26th, there are a total of 151,671 reported cases of COVID-19 in Canada. 71,005 cases originate from the Quebec area, making up the largest portion of the total cases at 47%. Other impacted areas include, Ontario and Alberta taking up another 44%. On September 24, 2020, Justin Trudeau, the prime minister of Canada, officially announced that the country may in fact experience a second wave of the coronavirus. However, the Canadian government is wary on what a second lockdown can mean for their economy. As of now, restrictions will only be implemented in targeted areas if necessary.
Name: Amy
Age: 21
Country: Canada, Vancouver BC
Occupation: Tourism, Corporate Event Manager
How has COVID-19 personally affected you and your family?
Covid-19 affected my family a lot but mainly through our everyday 9-5 jobs. I work in a place that thrives off tourism and without american’s our sales went down almost 20% this season. We needed to cut a lot of activities that bring in the company's main income as we were unable to find a way to run them safely. On Top of that, going into work daily was very stressful because you aren’t always aware if the people coming in everyday are being as safe as you are. You are also forced to put a large amount of trust in the people you work with that they are being honest about the groups they are seeing outside of work.
While my sister and father were unable to work, my mother was the opposite moving from part time work, to full when a visitor brought in covid to the senior center she works at. Several people passed away from the illness and it was a lot of mental strain. It was hard seeing my mother come home so exhausted from extremely long days, but I was happy to see many did recover and thing’s have been taken more seriously after and no one cases have entered the building.
How do you feel about how your country is handling COVID-19 precautions?
Personally I think the canadian government did the best they could at the beginning, but quickly began to slip back into bad rules when the curve began to flatten. It went from a full on lockdown, to small groups, to larger groups. It seems as though they have forgotten how fast the virus spreads and that is why our numbers are rising again.
What’s one thing that you and your family have had to give up due to COVID?
I gave up my whole summer due to covid. I normally am a very social person who is used to going out every single night but I was forced into cutting mostly everyone out of my life. While I noticed that the virus was very serious (probably a lot of the reason being where my mom works) a lot of younger people around my age had the idea that they wanted to enjoy summer. Towards the end of summer a lot of people began to grip desperately at any summer, and in August and September B.C’s numbers were back going up by the hundreds. Even at this point the Government has not made any changes about the group sizes, but they really should.
4. (Personal Question) If you could make a suggestion to your prime minister regarding the pandemic, what would you say?
a. A few months ago I would have said they need to stop traveling in Canada, like they did with the USA. British Columbia’s numbers went down very quickly as our province was doing very well, but when people from other provinces began to travel here because of our low cases. They needed to make a poll just for out of province cases because there were so many. That would have been a big suggestion I would scream at the government.
Mexico
According to the New York Times case count of COVID-19, Mexico has over 730,000 confirmed cases with over 76,000 fatalities, as of September 27, 2020. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and the Mexican government were hesitant in their move to act against the coronavirus. In the months following their encouragement to social distance, that hesitation still remains as the citizens struggle to social distance. Unlike their bordering countries, no shutdown or curfews have occurred within the country and their borders remain open. 123,655 of the cases have originated from Mexico City, Mexico’s capital and most populous city. Due to the lack of resources and information available for the public, the Los Angeles Times reports that many infected individuals choose to not be attended in hospitals or other by medical professionals.
Name: K Lee
Age: 21
Country: Mexico
Occupation: Full-Time Student
How has COVID-19 personally affected you and your family?
We’ve been lucky to have not been affected financially but we have had to adjust to staying inside. My sister and I have had to adjust to online learning which has taken quite a bit of adapting. Our mom has had to work from home which has been a challenge for her as well. We’ve also had many of our close friends catch covid so it’s been tough mentally for us to witness that.
How do you feel about how your country is handling COVID-19 precautions?
At first the country wasn’t taking it very seriously because we didn’t have many cases, so I think that was definitely a mistake. Now though we’re been encouraged to stay inside and if we must leave to social distance and wear a mask. I think that’s what a lot of other countries are doing and there’s not much else they can do so I think now it’s being handled well.
What’s one thing that you and your family have had to give up due to COVID?
We travel a lot so we’ve had to give up our travel plans including my 21st birthday trip. We’ve had to give up going to events and going to school in person as well.
Spain
On September 24, 2020, Spain surpassed the 700,000 threshold of confirmed COVID-19 cases. According to Yahoo! News, Spain has officially become the Western European country with the most cases with a third of the cases reported in the capital, Madrid. As a result the city has once again issued a temporary lockdown amid the spread of new cases. The total number of COVID-19 related deaths reported as of September 26th is about 31,000, and rising. The increase in cases has been attributed to the lifting of restrictions by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and the Spanish government on June 21, 2020. Despite the ongoing reopening of schools in Spain, Isabel Celáa, the Minister of Education informed the public that only 0.73% of classes were required to later quarantine themselves after admitting students.
Name: Jane
Age: 17
Country: Spain
Occupation: Student
How has COVID-19 personally affected you and your family?
The impact of Covid affected my mental health incredibly, and my parents lost lange amount of income due to the lack of work opportunities.
How do you feel about how your country is handling COVID-19 precautions?
The government is constantly changing the regulations to suit the different areas and their levels of danger, masks are compulsory at all times and groups of people can’t be larger than ten and of course social distance. Massive amounts of tests are being done around the country as well.
What’s one thing that you and your family have had to give up due to COVID?
Since we live in Spain but most of my family lives in South America, they usually come to visit and due to covid they had to cancel the flights and i haven’t seen my grandparents in over a year.
Australia
According to the Department of Health in Australia on September 23rd, 2020 there are:
Confirmed cases: 26,973
Cases recovered: 24,298
Total cases: 859
New cases in the last 24 hours: 22
Tests in the last 24 hours: 42,410
Australia’s population is 24.99 million people and it has less than 5% of California’s total cases and California’s population is 39.51 million people. Even though the United States is 1.3 times bigger than Australia there is a large difference in the amount of cases. Recently the premier of the Australian state Victoria, Daniel Andrews issued a lockdown whereas Melbourne will start to lift some of their restrictions under certain stipulations. Even though Australia has a much smaller amount of confirmed cases, they still chose the lockdown option to “drive down infections … and create space for contract tracing and mass testing”.
Name: Genevieve
Age: 17
Country: Australia
Occupation: Student
How has COVID-19 personally affected you and your family?
No one in my family has been directly impacted by COVID-19 (e.g. getting it) but we have all had to alter our schedules and lives to keep up with the harsh lockdown/quarantine rules that came about because of COVID-19.
How do you feel about how your country is handling COVID-19 precautions?
I believe that my country is handling the covid 19 precautions quite well. They have been quite strict from the very beginning in order to get the country’s cases under control as fast as they can.
What’s one thing that you and your family have had to give up due to COVID?
My family and I have had to give up moments with friends, non immediate family and just everyday activities. I personally had to give up on travelling to New York as part of a school trip.
4. What are your thoughts about the recent lockdown that Daniel Andrews declared? I believe that whilst they are quite strict and annoying to have to follow, they are in the interest of my country and will ultimately stop the spread of COVID-19 the fastest.
Name: Em
Age: 18
Country: Australia
Occupation: Student
How has COVID-19 personally affected you and your family?
Covid-19 has not really affected my family too badly, but my grandpa lives in Sydney, which is a covid hotspot. He wasn’t able to come and visit for birthdays and stuff like he usually does which is the only time we see him during the year.
How do you feel about how your country is handling COVID-19 precautions?
I feel like my country is doing pretty good with handling it, could be better though. At the moment we have one state in total lockdown where they have a curfew of like 8pm or something and are only allowed outside for 1 hour of exercise per day. Fortunately, I don't live there so i can't give you full details. overall. I think the country as a whole could be doing a bit better but I am not really updated because I live in a rural area away from the big cities.
What’s one thing that you and your family have had to give up due to COVID?
My family hasn't had to give up too much. The only thing really is that we don't see my mum as much because she usually has to do double shifts at work (she works in aged care) because people can't come to work if they get a cold or have a sore throat or anything so she usually has to work like 15 hour days which sucks but i guess you gotta do what you gotta do.
Conclusion
Each country that our interviews are from are all so drastically different from each other and the US. The lowest number of cases is Australia with only 26,973 cases. Genevieve contributes this to the strict regulations that Australia issued very early on in the pandemic and are still enforcing. The next lowest number of cases is in Canada however they are expecting a second wave of the coronavirus with 161,671 reported cases. Amy tells us how Canada was strict with their regulations at first and then over time they slowly allowed larger groups to assemble which is most likely the reason for sudden increase in cases. Unlike the US, Canada is still allowing travel to Canada which also contributes to the increase in reported cases. Both Mexico and Spain have over 700,000 reported cases. Spain’s steady increase in cases is mostly due to their lifting of restrictions. Whereas Mexico’s amount of cases are due to the lack of restrictions that the country has. However, K Lee did inform us that residents are now encouraged to stay inside but it’s not mandatory.
References:
Government of Canada. “Coronavirus disease (COVID-19): Outbreak update.” Government of Canada, Government of Canada, 26 Sept. 2020, https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/diseases/2019-novel-coronavirus-infection.html
Newton, Paula and CNN. “Trudeau says Covid-19 second wave already happening in Canada.” CNN on msn, Microsoft News, 24 Sept. 2020, https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/trudeau-says-covid-19-second-wave-already-happening-in-canada/ar-BB19oqCs
McDonnel, Patrick J. and Celia Sánchez. “Street life slowly returns to Mexico, even as the coronavirus toll climbs.” LA Times, Los Angeles Times, 18 Sept. 2020, https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-09-18/as-coronavirus-deaths-mount-in-mexico-people-tire-of-restrictions
Staff, The New York Times. “Mexico Covid Map and Case Count.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 28 Sept. 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/world/americas/mexico-coronavirus-cases.html
Landauro, Inti. “Spain reports 31,428 new cases of COVID-19 since Friday.” Yahoo! News, Yahoo! News, edited by Gareth Jones, 21 Sept, 2020, https://news.yahoo.com/spain-reports-31-428-coronavirus-162547267.html
Staff, Reuters. “Spain tops 700,000 coronavirus cases, Madrid surge in spotlight.” Healthcare & Pharmaceuticals, Reuters, 24 Sept. 2020, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-spain-idUSKCN26F2ZB
Jímenez, David. “There’s a Simple Reason Spain Has Been Hit Hard by Coronavirus” The New York Times, The New York TImes, 24 Sept. 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/24/opinion/spain-pandemic-second-wave.html
Australian Government Department of Health. “Coronavirus (COVID-19) Current Situation and Case Numbers.” Australian Government Department of Health, Australian Government Department of Health, 22 Sept. 2020, www.health.gov.au/news/health-alerts/novel-coronavirus-2019-ncov-health-alert/coronavirus-covid-19-current-situation-and-case-numbers.
Griffiths, James. “Analysis: Australia's Coronavirus Lockdown Strategy Worked. Could This Be a Model for the US?” CNN, Cable News Network, 21 Sept. 2020, www.cnn.com/2020/09/21/australia/australia-coronavirus-lockdown-intl-hnk/index.html.