In the last two weeks, I’ve seen a lot of posts on social media about how it’s been a full year now since the beginning of the pandemic. There were a lot of jokes about how “it was only supposed to be two weeks,” but here we are, and after a very long year, there’s hope in the air. People are getting vaccinated, and even though we’ll wear masks until 2025, it seems like life might be going back to normal. At least a kind of new post-Covid normal. If that’s your experience right now, whenever you start to feel frustrated about having to wear a mask, or celebrating Easter with less people, take a moment to feel lucky instead. We’re celebrating Covid’s birthday a little differently here in Santiago.
The one-year mark of Covid in Chile came with the news that part of the city would be going back into quarantine. We’ve been waiting our turn with a small amount of anxiety, as more and more areas of the city are confined to quarantine with the promise from the government that “it will only be 2 to 4 weeks.” It’s not unwarranted however, considering Chile is seeing 6000-7000 new cases every day, numbers that are comparable to last June. The school year started about three weeks ago, and with everyone coming back into the city from summer vacation, numbers just keep going up. A few days ago, our region was included in the new update, so as of tomorrow at 5 am, I won’t be able to leave my house, except for a few hours a week when I can get a permit to go get groceries. As I’m sure you can imagine, we’re not super excited.
While all of our bigger events were already planned for zoom, up until now we’ve been taking advantage of Phase 2 and 3 to meet with students one on one or in small groups. As of tomorrow, we’ll only be able to see them via zoom and social media. This is a tough break, because students are already struggling with zoom fatigue, and we’re seeing them online less and less. For now, we’re planning to just keep going, be intentional about reaching out personally, and wait for Phase 2 to come back. Only 2 to 4 weeks, right?!
Covid regulations in Chile
Similar to the US, we have a plan with different levels of restrictions that change depending on the statistics of each region. There are four phases that range from total quarantine to cautious reopening. Each region of Chile operates independently within these phases, just like how each state in the US has its own Covid measures. However, Santiago itself is divided into different regions because there are so many people here! Think New York City, where you have Manhattan and Queens and the Bronx, etc. That means that one region could be in Phase 3, enjoying restaurants and holidays, while a few miles away in a different region someone else is stuck in quarantine.
Currently, we’re in Phase 1, which means stay at home order all the time. We can’t even leave our house to go on a walk or go to the park. We’re allowed outside from 6-9am for exercise, and to go grocery shopping twice a week, but we have to get a permit. The permit is easy, you just request it online and it’s sent to you immediately in an email, but it’s only good for two hours, so you can’t do a lot. This is a dramatic change for people in Santiago, where we’re used to spending a lot of time outside. Everyone here walks everywhere, and many events are held outside since there’s good weather almost every day, so not even being able to do those seemingly harmless things is a pretty big deal.
Below you can see a description of each phase and a map of the current state of Santiago.
This (blurry) map shows the different regions in Santiago. The regions in red are in Phase 1 and the regions in orange are in Phase 2.
El Oasis/my house
Thank you for your prayers and support!
With love,