What a year and its only into its 8th month.
Had planned another cycling tour to Spain for 3 weeks at the end of February 2020 but then went and dislocated my shoulder a week beforehand. So trip had to be cancelled.
Had hoped to do the trip in April/May 2020 but then the beast from the east arrived named Coronavirus - Covid 19. This nasty virus caused major disruption to our lives not alone in Ireland but around the world.
New words became the everyday norm such as Cocooning, Washing Hands, Coughing/Sneezing in Elbows, Face Masks, Social Distancing, Clusters, Lockdown, R -numbers, Infection Rates, ICU, Ventilation and sadly deaths. Daily updates gave a myriad of statistics regarding new cases, new deaths and clusters of infections.
Lock Down: Schools, Shops, Pubs, Social Gatherings, Travel,Restaurants, Hotels, Airlines, Public transport all closed or were severely restricted on 19th March 2020.
Currently Infection Rates and deaths worldwide stand at 20 million and 750,000 respectively.
The Government/Health Services provided for a 4 phase reduction in the march lock down. 3 of the 4 phases went to plan but an increase in the number of new cases and clusters resulted in the deferral of phase 4 from the 10th August to the 31st August 2020. New clusters in Counties of Laois, Offaly and Kildare have resulted in lockdown of these three counties for 2 weeks from Saturday 8th August 2020.
Government advice is that no unnecessary travel should be undertaken and anyone arriving back from generally the popular destinations are required to quarantine for 14days.
Schools have been closed since March and are expected to reopen in early September.
At the time of writing the whole situation is fluid and who knows what in on the horizon.
