Here is the Covid-19 news: Good, mixed and pitiful!

 

No "friends and Reflex is closed!

On Monday and again today our island press announced a day with no new cases, and yesterday just one. Along with a whole tranche of recoveries this brings the active cases down to 52, The pressure is off for the hospital and deaths sit at 13, with no new ones for weeks! A huge sigh of relief :- especially as on Thursday there were 30 plus new cases! This had put an end to hope that the restriction level might come down, as otherwise it might have done. Fingers are crossed for this week's review. Never mind: Level 2 is tolerable - for Greyrocks anyway! We have had two Sundays when Yiannis has played and sung by the beach at Anno 2011. .Unfortunately yesterday we were there again (celebrating our second vaccinations). We asked if the rule infringements of the more recent afternoon - mostly but not entirely young Italians dancing, moving around without masks and over-occupying spaces   - had escalated after we left and were told it had, it was noticed, and that there could be no more live music for the time being!! Such a shame: we were getting on very well with him, practising our Greek, and teaching a member of staff the word "malaka". (This was apparently appreciated by Yiannis)

Good news also on the vaccination front. The explanation for the lack of arm-twisting necessary to get Ruth "done" at the same time as Bob became clear when we saw that the rule for cohorts was years of birth not actual age. On this basis our neighbours (one older and one slightly younger than us) were seen the following week for AZ injections. Unknown at first to us the next oldest cohort was invited - initially through Facebook - and another couple of friends asked Ruth to help them get an appointments. So quite a chunk of Monday morning was spent using the contact number, trying to catch the instructions (in very fast Spanish) and then dealing in Spanglish with long ID numbers, dates, ages and times! Eventually we succeeded and they are off for first jabs today. We needed a drink but it was a MOTH day!

Moving towards the bad end of the news continuum: There was - here in Corralejo- a party with 84 guests busted at 3 in the morning 10 days ago (and eight other smaller ones as well!) We were intrigued as to its location and are still looking for some of the evident landmarks as we wander round town. No luck so far! Here is the Guardia Civil video!

A panic has now gone round the Greyrocks household over the data from Cyprus:- destined to be our Schengen-free bolt-hole in a couple of weeks. It's not too bad on the deaths front, but a tough lockdown has been imposed in response to a surge in cases. and it will last over Orthodox Easter -  which starts on Friday. We are not keen to spend our two weeks in those conditions - even if fully vaccinated, so Plans B to G are being made for the summer migration! 

Desperately sad was the news from our cleaner - a star amongst cleaners - when she came on Sunday. looking less chirpy than usual and dressed in black. She is from Colombia, and her older sister had died there during the week from the virus! This is the closest we have come to Covid death (two "degrees of separation") RIP

But there can be no tragedy to match in scale that in India! With eight wonderful holidays in Goa under Greyrocks' substantial belt we know it isn't the real India, but we follow the news with interest and pick up the vibe when there. Back in January 2020 when we were last there we were appalled at the sectarian populism of Modi. It seems it is this that has made him tolerate mass religious and electoral crowds. The ultimate death toll is blood on his hands.