Single-use shopping bags are making a comeback
First, the politicians want to ban single-use bags and force everybody to carry reusable bags. Now. stores are banning reusable bags and insisting on single-use bags.
If reusable bags are germ infested and unsafe now, then they always were. Hopefully, all the single-use bag manufacturers haven’t gone out of business. On a positive note, if people can only buy what they can carry in their hands, it would put an end to hoarding.
Let this be a lesson for those politicians who like to jump on bandwagons without knowing all the facts.
S. I. Petersen
Nanaimo
I have symptoms and I’m staying home
I think I may have a mild case of COVID-19. My symptoms include sore throat, dry cough, sneezing, nasal congestion, chills, heavy flu-like feeling in my head, fatigue, occasional heavy feeling in my upper chest, and decreased appetite.
Here’s the important part: I stay at home most days. I’ve had NO contact with any friends, neighbours, or family, who have been out of the country.
In the six to 10 days before symptoms appeared, I shopped at grocery stores and farm markets on the Saanich Peninsula, ran some errands on Beacon Avenue in Sidney, and shopped at three stores in Saanich and Victoria. My only social event was coffee with another couple at a local coffee shop.
To be clear, I have NOT been tested. The online screening test at the B.C. Centre for Disease Control advised me to stay home and self-isolate.
However, if I do have COVID-19, then the horse has truly left the barn and COVID-19 is silently ripping through our community.
Please, please, please take this threat seriously. Don’t let the craziness of the toilet paper people distract you from doing the right things. COVID-19 may be more contagious than we realize. Stay home, stay safe.
Alice Brock
Saanichton
Provide locations of COVID-19 cases
I believe it is draconian and extremely ill-advised that the locations of the COVID-19 cases in the Island Health region are not being disclosed. I am a mental health practitioner; however, it does not take my expertise to realize that individuals will display drastically increased caution if they know there are active COVID-19 cases in their community.
It is an abstract concept to know there are 30 (and counting) cases in the Island Health region. With a location provided, individuals will recognize their risk far more immediately and respond accordingly. Privacy concerns are not the priority right now. Lately many laws and practices have been drastically overturned in order to save lives.
Disclosing the locations of COVID-19 cases in the Island Health region will save lives. Please do all that you can to urge decision-makers to provide this life-saving information.
Dr. Anita Snell
North Saanich
Knowing locations will not be helpful
Regarding the COVID-19 pandemic and publication of the locales of those who have tested positive for the virus: every one of us should assume that there are people in our community who can pass it on to us. Your next-door neighbour, the person with the nice smile who just passed you on the street, and the last person who touched the door handle that you're reaching for should each be presumed to carry the coronavirus, whether or not there is any evidence.
Information about the locale of cases will never help us to protect ourselves from it and may encourage complacency about social distancing and handwashing in the areas where there are not yet any known cases. The rapid and worldwide spread of COVID-19 has shown us that we can't afford to be complacent for any reason.
Margie Pringle, (RN non-practising)
Cobble Hill
Blame yourself if you’re not prepared
Re: “Prepared for a major quake but not this,” letter, March 20.
The letter-writer asks why “we” were not better prepared and blames government!
I’ve lived here for 30 years and have always heard that one should be prepared “in case of an emergency.”
Well, gee, here we have one. If you aren’t prepared to be isolated awhile, then you have no one to blame but yourself.
Our government is not here to hold our hands through every crisis.
They have consistently given us information and tools to deal with emergencies, but they can’t force us to use them. Maybe they should.
Doreen Barratt
Sooke
A thank you for an act of kindness
I would like to thank the couple who helped my husband and dog get home after he tripped over the leash near Gordon Head Road and Sage Lane on Feb. 26.
Our family do not know where we would be today if it had not been for your act of kindness to help him.
Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
Judy Skene
Saanich
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