I took it seriously

by Victoria K.

 

When the news about Coronavirus began to approach Sweden, I felt worried. I interpreted it that the virus was more dangerous than any other virus I experienced during my lifetime. Since I was previously very ill with regular pneumonia and know how hard I thought it was and how long it took for me to get healthy again, I took it seriously from the beginning.

I was pissed off at people who didn't understand the seriousness of it all, for example, my work colleague who traveled to Thailand and didn't seem to care about the danger she potentially took back to the workplace. I was pissed at how lame the Swedish government handled the Corona pandemic, how we could travel to Austria and Italy and more without having to quarantine when coming back. I followed the spread of infection through the internet and there were clear signs that it was people who visited these countries that brought the infection to us.

A little later, there was talk of the closure of schools and preschools. And since I work as a teacher at a preschool, I was prepared for this. I remember I thought it was obvious that the preschool would close down, including my son's school, so we were preparing for how we would handle it, like who would take care of my son if the school closed.

I purchased groceries to be able to cope with a longer time in our home. I made sure to get enough, including gloves and mouth protection to keep my family and I safe. A shutdown never came, however there were restrictions on how we face the corona crisis at work and in private.

Initially at my work, this meant the children who have parents at home during the daytime, for example, caring for children, were not allowed to come to preschool. Later, when many airport employee parents were laid off and at home, their children were not allowed to come to preschool. But the parents complained to the headmaster and got everyone's right to go to preschool which is in Sweden and now we have full children groups again. It makes me embarrassed to think that the safety of childcare providers and school teachers were not prioritized because we had to take care of the children whose parents work in the health care. The reality, however, is that many children who are in preschool, don't have parents with jobs in professions that are “important” in the corona crisis.

We have no protective equipment at work, but are expected to be close to the children and thus risk being infected. The only restriction being followed at the time of my writing this is that one must be home at the slightest sign of illness, but if someone else in the family, for example, the mother or father is ill, the child may still be left with us at preschool.

At first, I stayed at home a lot, but now I've also started to let go, I go into shops because I love going. But I wish we had participated in a shutdown so we would not have such wide spread in Sweden like we have now. My wish for the future (besides the virus disappearing) is to go to Denmark during the day, that's the only thing I want to do on my vacation. But, unfortunately, the Danes do not want the Swedes there and I can understand why.