And another
Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, the wife of Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, has tested positive for the novel coronavirus, becoming the latest in a string of high-profile individuals to become infected with the potentially deadly pathogen.
The issue isn’t “high profile” so much as “head of state or spouse thereof.”
On Thursday, the prime minister spoke by telephone with President Trump and the two leaders discussed efforts to respond to the pandemic, with nearly 135,000 known cases globally and nearly 5,000 deaths from the virus.
That is, one of them did that and the other babbled incoherently.
In a readout of the call, the prime minister’s office said: “The two leaders discussed the steps they are taking to protect the health and safety of their citizens and to promote economic resilience in response to the COVID-19 virus.”
See above.
Our local professional theatre has cancelled the rest of its season of performances. The library system has cancelled its programming. I’m still at work, but business is markedly slower. The tide is coming in….
Our local theatres are cancelling performances, too, but one of them is cheerfully keeping the theatre open, because it’s smaller than Broadway theatres, so not a problem friends. It seats at least 200, and the seats are cramped and close together. And people mill in the lobby during intermission. Yeah, no problem friends.
Ontario schools are closed for 3 weeks (at least), announced on Thursday (the first week is scheduled March Break, and I guess the reasoning is that the extra 2 weeks provides a bit of isolation for people who might have picked something up in their travels. Now today several large Ontario cities have announced that libraries, community centres, and museums will be closed as of Monday (which prevents mass congregations of out-of-school students).
And I kept shouting at the reporters who were asking the asymptomatic Justin Trudeau why he is not being tested, even though his wife is sick: BECAUSE THE EVIDENCE_BASED GUIDELINES ISSUED BY OTTAWA PUBLIC HEALTH SAYS THAT YOU ARE ONLY SUPPOSED TO GET TESTED IF YOU HAVE SYMPTOMS. (Here, at least, we do have sufficient test kits, and the public health departments have set up drive-through testing centres (but they keep having to send home “worried well”).