And Then It Happened....

Until last Tuesday Yamagata prefecture had been free of COVID-19 cases.  Then it happened.  A woman who was taking lessons at a local driving school started running a high fever over the weekend prior.  On Tuesday a public announcement was made, they had a COVID-19 case on their hands.

Within that announcement government spokespersons stated that the woman was from Kanagawa prefecture and that she had not been out of the country.  The next evening, one of students who works in a health professions reported that that wasn't the truth.  The woman had been to Thailand less than two weeks before travelling to Yamagata prefecture.

As of Wednesday this week the number of COVID-19 cases in Yamagata prefecture had risen to 22.  On that same day I found in my mail slot a printed notice from the city government which basically amounted to the following; don't travel outside the prefecture unless you absolutely have to, the pre-schools are to be closed until April 15th, and to report to public health authorities if one starts experiencing flu symptoms.

All in all, I can only shake my head in wonder.  I've been reading about how governments and the public have been working to contain the spread of the virus in Canada and have seen little of the same over here.  Some of the larger companies have put policies in place to keep COVID-19 out of their workplaces.  Interestingly enough, of those I know of, two of them are subsidiaries of American companies.

At this point in time, I'm having trouble putting my thoughts together on this topic.  So I'm going to cut it short here....