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Architect-US

Seattle, where the outbreak started

Seattle is the first city in the USA with COVID-19 cases

Seattle (WA) was one of the first cities in the USA to have any cases of COVID-19 at the end of February. That is something that it does not surprise me that much due the multicultural diversity of the city and great Asian influence. Apparently the first person was infected when his/her familiar traveled back from China and visited him/her at the LifeCare facility. From that a lot of more people got infected in the same nursing home being that the starter of the outbreak.

I remembered that I was following very close what was happening in Italy, how the hospitals had been collapsed and how Spain was starting to take some measures to stop the spread.

I usually took transit to get to work but after that I did not feel very comfortable or safe, so I started driving everyday to the office. That was approximately a month ago. During that first week I was very confused about how to act because Washington did not have many cases, but Spain was getting worse day by day and I did not want to follow the same wrong steps.

By that time, I was signed in a GYM with a coworker and we used to go to yoga together after work. We’ve started to receive emails from the place, saying that they were following the health protocols, but we were not sure if it was a good idea to keep going. In a matter of days Spain was locked down, all my family and friends were freaking out. Meanwhile here, everything was pretty calm, the schools and colleges got closed but other than that people kept doing normal life.

Those weeks at the office were uncertain, we were all there wondering what will happen and if the next day we would be able to come to the office. The principals started to prepare protocols for remote work, so we all be ready in case the governor would lock down the city. They cancelled all the team meetings, practicing the social distancing but it was still a small space with ten people working there. I was nervous because I knew the sooner we all go remotely the better.

A couple of weeks ago, we received an email offering the possibility of working from home and in the next following days, Washington’s Governor applied the “Stay at Home”.  Since that, all the non-essential businesses are closed, and you should remain at home. It’s really sad see all the small business having to close and all that people who lost their job… A lot of local restaurants are doing take out and delivery and we try to order a couple of times a week to support them. But unlike Spain, here we are allowed to go out for a walk or a bike ride as long as you keep 6 feet apart from other people. This is just the beginning, we are going to be at home at least until May.

Maria O'Connor

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