Recently, Ontario moved away from their 4 phase recovery plan and has implemented a new colour-based system. The new system has 5 stages: Green (Prevent), Yellow (Protect), Orange (Restrict), Red (Control), and Grey (Lockdown).
I could swear that when I first saw the chart, the final stage was Black. When I first heard the term "Grey Zone" I thought it was something like when we entered phase "3-B", an attempt to add an extra stage between two previously established ones.
But no, Grey is the new Black. I wonder if they backpeddeled on the term because it could potentially be racialized, or maybe they felt Grey was a "softer" term, and they wanted to avoid causing more of a panic than necessary. Still, who makes "Grey" the emergency colour? What comes after Grey? Code Beige?
I admit, we'd better be careful, because once we go Grey, it will probably be a long while before we get out. I hear there's 50 shades of it (little 50 Shades of Grey joke for ya).
I think the reason for the change from numbers to colours is that, it feels more natural to go back and forth with colours. When it's been stated that we have a 4 phase recovery plan, and we've made it to Phase 3, but then we have to go back to Phase 2 or 1, it feels like we have to redo our work on a project that we were close to completing. But with a traffic signal, we're used to seeing the light go from red, to green, to yellow, then back to red. It feels less linear.
Things have not been great around here. Since the colour system was implemented, Waterloo Region started at the Green Zone, which means using an education-first approach. Signs are placed, stating that wearing a mask and maintaining physical distance is important, and there is security on public transit calling you out for not following the rules and offering free masks, but there is no real substantive repurcussion for not following the rules. We quickly moved to the Yellow Zone, which means law enforcement is authorized to issue fines. Then we turned Orange, which I'm not going to bother looking up, because we barely touched it before turning Red.
The Red Zone means that social gatherings are limited to five people indoors, 25 people outdoors. Religious services are limited to 30% indoors, or 100 people outdoors. For food and beverage estabishments, only 10 patrons are allowed indoors at a time, two metres must be maintained between tables, unless an approved barrier is in place. No dancing, singing, or live performance. No buffets. PPE, including eye protection, must be worn by waitstaff. Everything has to be closed by 10, and no sale of alcohol after 9. Music must be down to a conversational level so that people don't have to shout (spraying saliva).
Oxygen bars, saunas, steam rooms, bath houses, sensory deprivation pods, are closed. Cinemas (except drive-ins) are closed. There are a bunch of restrictions placed on gaming, bingo halls, and performing arts.
I gotta say, the closure of cinemas peeves me a little. I run a group right now, and we've been to three different establishments: an arcade, a pool hall, and a theatre. Between the three, I felt safest at the theatre by far. At the arcade, there were hand sanitization stations everywhere, but they definitely weren't sanitizing machines between uses and the setup of the location made physical distancing diffiuclt, although they did encourage it. At the pool hall, every second table was closed and everyone received their own pool cue at the front instead of getting them at the rack. There were signs everywhere saying that masks were mandatory, but only my group was wearing them. At the theatre, they got rid of the guy who rips your ticket, you have to select your seat in advance, and there are strict capacity limits. The only concern I can think of, is that it's difficult to monitor people to make sure they keep their masks on during the film. But really, is sitting in a giant, nearly empty room doing nothing all that much more dangerous than other activities?
Toronto and Peel Region are in the Grey Zone, meaning they are back in lockdown. I must admit I'm a little surprised. I thought that the initial lockdown was because of all the unknowns. Back then, we didn't have tests available, and when we did, there weren't very many of them. We didn't know how the virus spread or how to best protect ourselves. It felt like the governments just needed us to hide until they got things figured out. But now we have things more or less figured out and we're still requiring lockdowns. Personally, I feel like regions should be dancing between Yellow and Red. Green feels too careless, and Grey feels too imposing. But I'm not a health expert.
Numbers are worse than ever but there isn't the same feeling of panic as there was at the beginning of the pandemic. I haven't seen any panic buying (except for sanitization wipes, still can't get those), although stores have started putting restrictions on toilet paper in anticipation of it. If we do the panic buying thing again, I really hope it isn't toilet paper. That was embarrassing.
I think the reason that people aren't reacting to our current situation as strongly as we were before, is because we're just tired at this point, and we've survived the initial wave. When things started out, deaths were going up exponentially and despite our efforts, things didn't seem to be slowing down. Now, we've seen things get better, and we have reason to believe things will get better again.
Since cases are going up despite increased precautions, it's tempting to say that our efforts are not yielding results. However, I watched an interview with Obama, and if I recall correctly, he said that Canada has 39% the mortality rate for people with COVID than the United States. If you look at the Worldometer, I think the last time I addressed where we compared with the world, we were at #14. At this point, we're #29. This means we're not just holding our position, we're competitive with the rest of the world.
However, I'm not sure how much I can rely on the Worldometer. Right now, they have the Diamond Princess, the cruise ship that was infected at the beginning, as having 40 active cases. How can that be? It's been nearly nine months since exposure.
Also, media has been stating that New Zealand and Taiwan are completely free from COVID. However, according to Worldometer, New Zealand has six new cases and 72 active cases. Taiwan has 24 new cases and 103 active cases. So what exactly am I supposed to beleve?
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