Expats surviving lockdown across the globe

From Canada to Australia, New Zealand and the UK, expats from the Eastern Cape continue to have one thing in common; lockdown — or self-isolation — and the fear of contracting Covid-19.

Some are forced to spend their time in cramped apartments, while others are still allowed their daily walks, but each one of them is playing their part to stay home as much as possible in a bid to curb the spread of the global killer virus.

Marketing manager Reme Foster, 38, who lives in Oundle in England, said the lockdown in the UK started on March 23, just days before SA followed suit.

While the initial lockdown period had been set for three weeks, Foster said the feeling was that some form of lockdown would be extended for at least another six months.

The UK government, however, was a little more generous when it came to setting the rules for its residents.

“We can basically leave our homes for four reasons,” Foster, who immigrated to the UK from Port Elizabeth nearly four years ago, said.

“Only one family member is allowed to shop for basic necessities, but luckily our government and the shops have not determined what is essential or not, as I hear is the case in SA.

“Children are also not allowed in the shops and this limits the queues and the chance of infection.”

Also unlike SA which has put a ban on exercise outside one’s yard, Foster said one form of exercise was allowed per day, either alone or with members of your household.

“So you can go for a walk, jog or cycle once a day. They have also set up a hotline where residents can report their neighbours should they go out more than once a day.”

He said the only other two outings permitted were medical visits or for work if it was impossible to work from home.

While companies in England had apparently been very generous in allowing employees to work from home, Foster said there had been some uproar about construction workers continuing to build on sites as it was impossible for them to keep the required 2m distance apart.

Germari Herselman, 34, who lives in Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand, with her husband and three-year-old son, said their four-week lockdown period started on March 25.

Her family moved to New Zealand from East London eight years ago.

She also expected their lockdown to be extended.

“It is stressful because we really don’t know how this will affect us financially in the future and what the effect might be globally,”  Herselman, who had been working in a South African shop prior to the lockdown, said.

They are still allowed to walk and ride their bikes in their suburbs as long as the 2m social distancing recommendation is adhered to.

“Our government does not want us driving anywhere unless it is for groceries or medical visits, and this is now monitored by the police who do random checks.

“Seeing the spirit in the little community we live in has been amazing. People stop to chat from across the road or over their garden walls.”

Australia is meanwhile still in stage two of the lockdown protocol, meaning schools remain open for now, as well as essential businesses.

Astralita Peterson, 34, who lives in Queensland, said Australia was in the process of closing its borders.

Peterson, a hospital worker originally from Port Elizabeth, said most shops were closed, while others had restricted trading hours.

“We have to adhere to social distancing and more and more restrictions get added on an almost daily basis,” she said.

Just this week Australia put a ban on exercise and social gatherings.

Former Port Elizabeth businesswoman Catherine Botha, 31, who lives in Alberta in Canada, said their government had been rather strict about the rules in a bid to avoid a full lockdown.

They had accordingly been in self-isolation for the past three weeks.

This meant no eating out at restaurants, no visits to the park and only essential services and businesses continued to operate.

As of March 31, there were 7,448 confirmed and presumptive cases in Canada, 4,557 in Australia, New Zealand had recorded close to 700 and more than 22,000 people had tested positive across the UK.