Tsunami, 25. Ferrying to Vaccination

This morning, I drove my mother-in-law to Boiro to receive her first jab of the Covid vaccine. 

For some unfathomable reason, instead of people getting the vaccine at their usual health clinic, everyone from Rianxo, Boiro, and another township, have to go to the clinic at Boiro. Yet, they want people to keep their distance from one another. The good thing was that, when I got there, very few people were to be seen. I could even park right across the road from the entrance. Does that mean it will take forever to get to the next age level of vaccinations?

We were early, and we left early, so there wasn't a long crowd of people waiting. My mother-in-law was told to wait either there or in the car for fifteen minutes before leaving, just in case she had an adverse reaction, though it seems it's the second dose next month that might give her some fever. So, we sat in the car for about twenty minutes, and then left, stopping along the way, of course, to run errands.

It was the first time since the very beginning of December that I had set foot in Boiro. Much was still the same, but other things had changed. A new luxury car dealership had opened in a corner building that had had workers getting it ready for ages before. (My daughter asked, "what, there's no crisis?" No, not for the rich.) A new dental clinic appeared in a spot where there had been nothing. (Boiro has its fair share of dental clinics now - a consequence of most dental work not being covered by social healthcare.) A branch bank had closed because it had merged with another; more customers, fewer workers, longer waiting times. This was what I could see from the driver's seat. I'll have to walk the streets on Saturday afternoon to notice any other changes. 

The supermarket where we stopped was full of cars and people. One could see that many who had been called for the vaccine had decided to run errands a day earlier than was allowed. Tomorrow, the townships open, but why waste gas?

I sat in the car all the time. There was no reason to get out and mingle with people, so I didn't. I had a mask lowered around my neck in case we were stopped by officious police officers, but we weren't. I only saw the local police once, in Boiro, and patrolling by car through the center of town. It seems that they are relaxing a bit. But they haven't relaxed in other places. Yesterday, I think it was, police fined various people for jumping the perimeter of Santiago without a valid reason. Illegal parties are on the rise, both here in Galicia, and especially in Madrid, which, along with Euskadi and the African cities of Ceuta and Melilla, has the worst infection rate of the country. I don't know about Eusdaki and the two cities, but the region of Madrid doesn't surprise me, with its extremely lax restrictions. Spanish language students who have come from France are pleasingly surprised that they can go to bars and restaurants, and practically live in the streets, without any problem. 

Tomorrow, I have already been given errands to run in Santiago by my family, where I haven't been since the middle of December. I should go tomorrow and not wait for next week. Something tells me I should take advantage of the opening up of townships before they get closed down again. As vaccinations roll along, contagion will probably start to go down, but there's still a long spring ahead.

Life continues.