The Dystopian Times, 26. Of Malls, Tourism, and the Virus.

I went to a shopping mall in Santiago this morning. It's the third time since the pandemic began that I've been. If in July, when I last went, there was almost a normal amount of people, this time, the place was mostly empty. Despite the fact that school is beginning some time between this and next week, there was not much back to school shopping being done. 

Santiago is under a restriction these days. Thanks to about nine people infected at a gym, reunions of more than ten people are not allowed, and the number of people allowed to stand at bars in cafés is fifty percent of those that fit. That doesn't mean that some incoming university students won't give their private parties; they will, but they'll just have to keep the noise down if they don't want the neighbors to call the cops. Whereas before, the students wouldn't have cared, now they want to avoid fines of over a thousand euros and up. 

Today, overall numbers of newly infected have gone down in our region, but they've gone up at some elderly residences. Again. And Madrid seems to be out of control. An entire classroom at one school is in quarantine after a student tested positive. But the region of Madrid has about the same restrictions as the city of Santiago, with many more sick of Covid per thousand. 

There won't be another general lockdown. More than anything, because of the economic chaos that would ensue. Already, with the country stopped for two full months, we are the country with the worst performing economy this year in Europe. But the biggest reason is not the lockdown. It's the fact that we have gone from having the construction industry as the economic mainstay, to turning tourism into the most important industry in the country. And tourism is the first industry to suffer when travel is curtailed. All the areas of the country that used to depend on foreign tourists are suffering. Here in the northwest, we don't suffer as greatly because our tourism tends to be national. But, that meant that the growth in contagion came about by those who brought the virus from other parts of Spain, because here we were almost rid of it.

At least the weather is being nice to us these days, and it's warm without being obnoxious.

Life continues.