Day 4 of lockdown – Adjustments and some history…
We’ve been fascinated by the narratives of friends around the globe as they deal with Covid-19, and many have asked about us. We usually stick with posts about our travels, but these are not usual times. So we began our reporting with Day 4 of our lockdown in central Amman.
Today – after three days of 24 hour curfew strictly enforced by police, with arrests of hundreds of violators – the government began using public transport resources to deliver water, gas and bread to households. Flatbreads (pita) are a staple at every meal so they are high on the list to deliver first. Thursday, other items will be set for delivery the same way: rice (another staple), frozen chicken, eggs, sugar and tobacco. Without question, tobacco is one of the most important of these for a cigarette-loving populace.
Unfortunately, alcohol is not so important in a Muslim country, though normally there are many liquor stores around town. They will remain closed during the lockdown. So it is already Abstinence Day 9 for us.
Next week the government will start delivery of a broader range of products. This is a social country where people do not normally order takeout, but do gather daily at mosques for prayer and rely on the open air markets for daily shopping. Like us, they have had to adapt to the new order of things.
As we are not allowed on the streets, we feel fortunate to have an enormous deck/patio with a great view. The weather had been pretty cold and wet until yesterday so we had not really taken advantage of it. But today we spent 20 minutes walking the edge of the deck, about one minute per lap. Our course is in the video. It felt good. In the background, at times, the prayers broadcast from the elegant mosque near us echoed around the encircling hills.
Our Airbnb apartment sits within a very tight-knit neighborhood, including several extended families. Today, people mingled a lot more than they should for social distancing, darting around the streets and making sure their neighbors were OK, but retreating to their own doorways like prairie dogs if there was sign of police. We really appreciate how well our hosts and friends and neighbors have taken care of us. Living separated, we are not really alone.
We have been relieved as well to experience the decisive, effective leadership of the country. A brief history of the last month… Jordan had only one case of coronavirus about a month ago, a Jordanian returning from Italy. He was tested and quarantined, then recovered. Then, no new cases for two weeks. Mid-March, some tourists tested positive. The government acted swiftly to track down all known contacts and quarantine everyone.
Then it closed the borders except for the movement of goods. Before the closure, however, about 5000 nationals returned to Jordan. Every single person was put into quarantine at 4 and 5 star hotels, with all their belongings sanitized. We saw that several military vehicles and armed soldiers blocked access to the snazzy Intercontinental Hotel. In addition to closing the airports, Jordan also closed tourist sites and schools. The markets, pharmacies and souks remained open during the week.
But, four days ago, on Saturday a week after closing borders and with little warning, Jordan began mandatory lockdown, with violators sent into 2 week quarantine and then up to one year in jail. Further, during the following week, Jordan developed from scratch an online platform for educating all levels of its children at home. And, as today illustrated, it has figured out how to keep food supplies strong and deliver to people during the lockdown.
