So, the Corona-virus and Covid-19, the sickness it causes, have determined almost everybody's life during the last year in one way or the other. And our little family is of course no exception. I had the outbreak of the virus quite early on on my personal radar, simply because I am a news junky and always on the outlook for events that could have impact on my surroundings, my family and myself.
Living 2020 in Sweden was quite painful for us. Not because we could not stand the restrictions or had to change dramatically - in contrary, I finally got to enjoy the perks of being an introvert with only the occasional need for larger gatherings and the fact that we hardly had extended family around us. In the sense that we are used to see our families only every now and then. What made it hard for us was the fact that the Swedish approach of doing as little as possible became very apparent from the start and that we were definitely not agreeing with it. If you want to shrink it down in a one-liner, our motto in this case would be: "Better be safe than sorry".
Now, my husband is over 50, I am in my mid 40s and we have a kid with asthma. None of us is keen on testing if we would get away with a mild infection or not. None of us is keen on the chances of long term consequences. Also, to us it was apparent that Sweden was badly prepared for a situation like this. Lack of educated staff in hospitals, lack of materials like PPE and equipment like ventilators and especially in Stockholm a health care system that has been privatized and reduced to an absolute minimum during the last ten years did not make us more confident. Only this would warrent a whole blog post or more.
But then my husband had to be in the UAE during September and October and was delighted by what he saw. Everybody wore masks, everybody and everything gots disinfected, distancing rules were enforced strictly, people could only enter to the country with negative PCR-tests, tests had to even be conducted in parts when traveling within the UAE, public life was restricted, there was no lack of health care capacities, staff in hotels, restaurants and other establishments got regularly tested, case numbers were low and death numbers even lower. What was more, authorities were not shy in enforcing these rules, giving out hefty fines to establishments and tourists when not following them. Since around Christmas the Pfizer and Sinopham vaccines are available for all citizens and residents. This sounded really good, actually so much better than everything we had seen in Sweden so far. So under that aspect the decision to go and live in Dubai for a good while was really easily made. Other personal factors played heavily in of course but I will talk about that in due time.
Then came Christmas and Dubai that depends not only but to a large part on tourism, started to open up. Restrictions like social distancing, wearing masks and certain demands for how to disinfect publicly shared places remained. But with the influx of tourists a raise in case numbers was expected. I myself did not really enjoy the beach pictures posted by wanna-be celebs and influencers all over social media (not that I follow any of these but the reporting on it was hard to miss).
Three days ago the AP press then published a report that was picked up by several international news outlets. I quote the text from AP press:
„Masks off the minute you step inside. Bars packed and pulsing like it’s 2019. Social media stars waving bottles of champagne. DJs spinning party tunes through multi-hour brunches.Since becoming one of the world’s first destinations to open up for tourism, Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, has promoted itself as the ideal pandemic vacation spot. [...]
Now reality is catching up to the big-dreaming emirate. With peak tourism season in full swing, coronavirus infections are surging to unprecedented heights. Daily case counts have nearly tripled in the past month, forcing Britain to slam shut its travel corridor with Dubai last week. But in the face of a growing economic crisis, the city won’t lock down."
(https://apnews.com/article/dubai-party-haven-coronavirus-6edff7b2ecc2a94b1ca0cbeea0de1b32)
While all true, the tone is quite malicious and the overall text not very nuanced. Now, AP press is not alone in failing to report in a nuanced matter. Over the years I found that news outlets all over the world seem to have a problem with reporting in nuanced manner. I can find this in reports about Brazil and Sweden. All is always described very black and white, something I find very tyering to be honest. But it did only take a couple of hours until this was contradicted by the UAE in a statement:
“The Dubai government has reiterated its efforts to maintain the highest level of protection against the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuring the full compliance with preventive and precautionary measures.Reacting to a story by the Associated Press (AP) about the COVID-19 situation in Dubai, the Dubai Government’s Media Office issued a statement rebuffing AP's claims.“
(https://gulfnews.com/uae/government/dubai-slams-rumours-about-covid-19-situation-in-emirate-1.1611077426903)
This also is true. Still all measures are in place, people adhere to it and if somebody is not, some attentive staff is not far away to remind you of it. If one has “bad luck“ it might be an official fining you for overstepping the rules. But it was also apparent that this sort of control became naturally harder to maintain with the raising number of people moving out and about in public spaces and establishments. But since yesterday, restrictions on several levels have been tightened again, one example here:
“Dubai: Entertainment activities by performers, live bands and DJs at restaurants and beach clubs have been put on hold after the authorities uncovered several violations by some establishments, a top official of Dubai Tourism told Gulf News. [...] He said over 3,100 inspections were carried out across the city over the last three weeks, with more than 200 violations being identified.“
(https://gulfnews.com/uae/what-entertainment-activities-have-stopped-in-dubai-and-why-1.76654891)
There was more information coming out during last evening and this morning regarding other areas of the pandemic and day-to-day live.
Why am I listing this up here ? Because compared to everything I have seen and experienced as a Corona-response in Sweden, heard from other countries this is FAST. And it is consequent because it is also being reinforced. It is added to an already established base of measures that never have been taken back in full. We still as a family keep our social distance, we for now and as long as necessary refrain from visiting touristy spots in danger of being overcrowded (since living here we can chose days and times when we know it will be far less people) and we hardly go to restaurants or other establishments and if we do, we sit outside, socially distanced in an rather empty spot were staff has been disinfecting the table, wears masks and gloves and so on.
All will stand and fall now with the new variants of the virus and their spread, namely the ones from Britain (that is already proven to be here in the UAE), South Africa and a new discovery from Kenia. But the response of authorities here has been in large competent, swift and consequential and so far I do not have to worry that one of my family-members or myself will not be treated (for anything) because there is no capacities left in the health care system. This is the de-facto situation since March in Sweden, were the list with pushed-back treatments of all kinds is immense. In Sweden, going to the hospital contains a risk of contracting the virus at the moment, also something that hardly is mentioned. The information flow is slow and numbers on cases always delayed. So you never really now what the situation actually is.
So whenever you see some photoshopped bikini-/bathing trunks-clad picture of some minor celeb and influencer visiting Dubai or read a sensationalized news report you might want to keep this in mind.
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