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A year has passed since the first confirmed case of the coronavirus in Poland. The last 12 months have turned our lives upside down. We work and learn differently, we travel less often, we cannot meet our friends in the restaurant, we stopped going to the cinema, theater or gym. Now we are waiting mainly for the next decisions regarding the restrictions and we calculate when it is our time to vaccinate. What have we learned during this year? Here are nine things that have changed in our lives.
- On March 4, 2020, the first case of coronavirus in Poland was recorded. The “patient zero” turned out to be a 66-year-old man who came from Germany to Poland
- The year of the pandemic in Poland is 1,7 million infected, over 44 thousand. deaths and a huge change in the way we live
- In the last few months, we have learned patience, we have started to take more care of hygiene, we have become closer to the family and started helping our neighbors
- We travel literally less often, but experience more virtually
- What else have we learned from the pandemic?
- For more up-to-date information on the coronavirus, please visit the TvoiLokony home page
We learned humility and patience
The coronavirus pandemic allows very little. In the evening we will not go to the cinema or the theater (because some of them are still closed), we will not meet friends in the restaurant, we will not go to another city on the weekend, and we could not go skiing in winter. Even going to the store was rationed at times.
Any far-reaching plans had to be put off for a while and focused on the present in your four walls. Read an overdue book, watch the new season of your favorite series with a snippet, and instead of equipment from the gym or fitness club, sometimes we had a paint roller (how much could you delay painting the room?) And a sofa to move.
We have changed our eating habits
Restrictions related to the movement and operation of stores have changed our eating habits. Last year’s research showed that we started to cook at home more, look more closely at products, throw away less food, and we were forced to plan our purchases more wisely.
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We started taking care of hygiene
The beginning of the pandemic and feverish purchases made here and there before a possible national quarantine resulted in a flood of memes with toilet paper and soap in the main roles. Jokes are jokes, but due to the coronavirus, we remembered about personal hygiene. We found out what appliances and places in the house are the habitat of the greatest number of germs, what to avoid in public places and how long it takes to have hands for it to make sense.
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The effects are very tangible. Last year, the number of cases of infectious diseases or the so-called dirty hands diseases. There were also fewer cases of influenza.
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We also took care of head hygiene. On the one hand, the pandemic is not relaxing in itself, but switching to remote work made us slow down our pace of life and spend more time resting.
We remembered nature
When we were locked in our homes due to the coronavirus and we could not even enter the forest, nature reminded of itself. Animals emboldened or more surprised by the lack of human beings began to emerge from their natural spaces. Pictures of deer, wild boars, even bears and bison, which appeared near human settlements, swarmed. Pictures from Italy were also a hit – the canals in Venice were full of fish.
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And when the entrance to the forest was not forbidden, it swarmed with walking, jogging and riding. It was similar with other places where you could rest, observe nature and generally slow down.
During the pandemic in Poland, the number of dogs and cats taken from shelters increased. The presence of a four-legged companion allows you to better withstand the effects of constantly sitting at home, and dogs have also become an excellent excuse (included in government regulations) to go for a walk.
Having to sit at home or not having reasons to leave the house made us focus on the family. Both the closest we live with and the more distant, with which we could only contact via the phone or computer screen. We called our parents, grandparents and siblings more often and apparently we promised ourselves that this condition would be maintained.
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We noticed our neighbors more often. We helped with purchases when they were imprisoned due to quarantine, and there were also many initiatives to support people who were lonely, elderly or with mobility problems.
We started listening to specialists
For a year now, all aspects of the pandemic have been explained to us by virologists, microbiologists, doctors of all specializations, mathematicians and statisticians. In Poland, even people who are not interested in medicine or science have learned about a dozen names of experts who tirelessly explain why it is worth getting vaccinated, what mask is the best, when you can open restaurants and whether we should be afraid of another variant of the coronavirus.
The whole world has probably also learned who Dr.Anthony Fauci, the expert of Dr. infectious diseases, advising successive US presidents on health matters for nearly four decades.
Yes, there have been experts whose diagnosis has turned out to be a mistake, such as Sweden’s chief epidemiologist Anders Tegnell, who has long opted for a liberal approach to epidemic restrictions.
On the other hand, we started to pay more attention and verify the actions of charlatans trying to treat COVID-19 with vitamin C or stigmatize nonsense told by some celebrities.
We are less afraid of vaccines
For years, vaccination coverage in Poland has been steadily declining, doctors are alarming that there is an increasing percentage of children not vaccinated against measles, mumps and rubella. The anti-vaccine movement is doing very well, with the coronavirus becoming even more visible. Perhaps it’s because it’s extremely loud, and not because it’s growing stronger.
Because epidemiologists’ repeated ad nauseam calls for vaccination must be effective. And if not appeals, then hard data on the number of victims of the virus. And not from distant places, but from our immediate vicinity.
- Will you get vaccinated against COVID-19? MedTvoiLokony results. The change is huge
The thesis of greater approval for vaccines may be risky, but finds support, for example, in the MedTvoiLokony poll. In early December, we asked “are you planning to vaccinate against the coronavirus”. 45 percent responded positively. study participants, while 36 percent. it was not going to be vaccinated. In January, these numbers were completely different. 69 percent expressed their willingness to vaccinate. of those surveyed, 23 percent were “no”
We have become more digital
For fear of the coronavirus, Polish stores suggested, and in some places even required, to pay by card, not cash. Poles did not have any problems with it, because we are the European leader in contactless payments. Residents of Austria and Germany were much more affected by this, where the cash-paying culture is still doing very well.
- Paying with cash is a low risk of coronavirus infection. The Bank of England reveals research results
For many of us, online shopping was common much earlier, but the first months of the pandemic meant that as many as one-fifth of Poles did it for the first time and will probably stay in this form. We shopped online, ordered food, watched cinema films, consulted a doctor, and even traveled internationally.
And remote work or online school has become a matter of course. And it seems that it may remain – especially work – the binding standard for years.
The borders can be closed again
For some Western European countries, the lack of border controls has a 25-year history. For Poles, it is several years. So, almost an entire generation has grown up for which a barrier or an official at the border between countries is an abstraction.
However, the coronavirus made us remember it. During the first wave of the pandemic, several countries closed their borders. Including Poland. In March last year, the borders were closed for 10 days, and international passenger air and rail connections were also suspended.
- How to travel in the era of coronavirus? Safe tourist rules
During the summer, the number of new cases of the coronavirus was falling, we felt safer, so coastal beaches all over Europe swarmed with domestic and foreign tourists.
Now, facing the new wave, border closure is back. Germany has recently introduced controls at the border with the Czech Republic and Austria, our government is considering a similar solution for southern Poland.
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