Living and surviving pandemic in a foreign land

WITH its global impact the Covid-19 has affected Sarawakians for over a year not only at home but overseas, preventing them from flying back and visiting family and friends.

Among them is Kuching-born Datin Eileen Yen, 64. She is a retiree and lives in Mississauga, a city in Ontario, Canada, where she is a permanent resident.

New Sarawak Tribune contacted her to hear about how she got there; how Canada has coped with Covid-19, and how the pandemic has affected her daily life.

Fifteen years ago, after a long career in Kuching — first as a teacher, then lecturer at Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) and Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas), and later on as director of the Sarawak Biodiversity Centre (SBC)— she decided “to live life and see the world”.

Before emigrating to Canada, she had been married to Kelabit businessman Datuk Marcus Raja for 23 years. He perished tragically in a helicopter crash along with six others at Mount Murud on July 12, 2004.

After Marcus’ death, she never thought that she would remarry or emigrate.

In 2006, however, she met Canadian wildlife conservationist Ronald Orenstein in Curitiba, Brazil, where they were both attending an international meeting of the Convention on Biological Diversity. They have been living in Mississauga ever since.

“We have spent part of every year in Kuching, and we have travelled a lot in between. That was before the pandemic arrived and the world changed,” said Yen.

The onset and rise of Covid-19 in Canada

Yen said Canada reported its first two confirmed cases in late January last year — man and his wife who returned to Toronto from Wuhan, China, the epicentre of the outbreak.

On Feb 20, a woman returning from Iran became the first person in the country to be diagnosed with Covid-19 without having visited China. Two weeks later, on March 5, Canada’s first-known case of community transmission was identified in British Columbia.

Canada’s first death was recorded on March 8 — a man in his 80s who was a resident of a care home in Vancouver.

Yen recalled that while all this was happening, she and her husband were on a cruise ship on the Amazon River. Although they kept up with the news, they did not think too much of the situation at first.

“Ron lectures on cruise ships, and we had already agreed to stay on board for the ship’s next leg across the Atlantic to Barcelona. We were due to disembark in Spain on March 26, 2020,” she said.

However, with the World Health Organisation (WHO) declaring Covid-19 a pandemic and the United States of America (USA) announcing that all travel from Europe to USA would be suspended for 30 days starting March 13, their cruise to Barcelona, along with all other Viking cruises, was abruptly cancelled.

“We greeted the news with a sigh of relief,” she said, noting the quickly worsening situation around the globe.

Upon anchoring in Puerto Rico, Yen and Orenstein scoured every pharmacy they could find but could not find a single mask or a bottle of hand sanitiser; people were already panicking.

“Fortunately, our flight home on March 13, 2020 was uneventful despite a nerve-wracking two-hour transit in New York,” she said.

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As for what it was like once they returned home, she said, “We had just enough time to stock up on food supplies before the province of Ontario declared a state of Emergency on March 17. By that time, Ontario had recorded a total of 180 active cases and its first death, a 77-year-old man.”

While this seemed bad enough, she was reminded that now — 16 months later — Ontario’s Covid-19 toll has ballooned to approximately 553,000 cases and 9,400 deaths (at the time of writing).

Yen said many milestones had been marked over the last 16 months, including the closure of Canada’s borders to non-essential travel in March of last year.

She said that by the end of April last year, Ontario and Quebec required military assistance as long-term care homes reported massive outbreaks among both elderly residents and staff members — the crisis in senior homes was cross-country.

“Between March 2020 and February 2021, the virus infected over 80,000 residents and staff in long-term care homes across Canada — 14,000 residents died. Canada’s long-term care crisis had become the worst among the world’s wealthy nations,” she recalled.

She remembered watching in growing alarm as the death toll across the country last year began to rise worryingly. Canada surpassed 100 deaths on April 2 last year, less than a month after the pandemic was declared, and just over a month later, on May 12, there were already over 5,000 recorded deaths.

“By June the case load had already reached 100,000, and it passed the 200,000 mark only four months later on Oct 19,” she said.

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Mitigation measures and Ontario’s efficient vaccination campaign

New Sarawak Tribune asked Yen how the situation has been this year, especially now that vaccines are available.

She said that during the last week of March this year, Ontario had started to see an alarming spike in cases, with its seven-day average hitting 2,319.

“On April 16, the number spiked to 4,812 daily new cases. The seven-day average climbed to 4,292 — a record for Ontario since the pandemic had been declared.

“Recently, though, things have begun to improve. By July 17, the seven-day rolling average of new Ontario cases was down to 151,” she said.

Why the sudden change? What had happened to bring down case numbers so drastically just three months after reaching a record high?

Yen believed this change could be attributed to a number of aspects.  

“Ontario had already implemented many mitigation measures including three province-wide shut-downs and stay-at-home orders. The first was in March last year and there were two more in January and April this year.

“However, I believe that the most crucial factor in bringing down the numbers was the success and efficiency of Ontario’s vaccination campaign,” she said.

According to www.covid19tracker.ca, as of Aug 11, 71.54 percent of all people in Ontario had received at least one dose of the vaccine while 63.68 percent were fully vaccinated. Among adults aged 18 years and above, 82.12 percent had received at least one dose while 73.71 percent were fully vaccinated.

Yen said Ontario’s goal was for every resident to be able to get a Covid-19 vaccination if they wanted one; vaccination was not mandatory.

“Under Canada’s health programme, vaccines are offered free to all. Canada wanted to get the vaccines out quickly as possible to as many people as possible,” she commented.

All the same, she said Canada does not manufacture its own vaccines. She said supplies arrived in a staggered fashion, and the government had to strategise the vaccine rollout and level of priority.

“To do this, they developed a three-phase distribution programme,” she said.

Canada received its first doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in December last year, and these limited supplies were administered in the two hardest-hit provinces at the time, Ontario and Quebec.

“During Phase 1, which started in December last year, the government gave priority to the most vulnerable groups and their caregivers — long-term care home residents and staff as well as indigenous adults in remote and high-risk communities.”

“Next came everyone 80 years of age and above,” she remarked approvingly. “Canada really values its senior citizens!”

She said Phase 2 commenced around March/April this year, when Canada started receiving a lot more vaccines.

During this phase, Yen explained, the government worked with employers and community agencies to set up many mobile, pop-up, and workplace vaccination venues, usually in local hotspots.

She said people were kept well-informed with up-to-date vaccination information including walk-in venues and availability through television news stations and social media.

She added that in this phase, eligibility for the first dose was given based on age group. “After people aged 80 years and above had their opportunity to be vaccinated, they opened up eligibility for younger age groups: 75-79, 70-74, 65-69, 60-64, and so on.”

She said Ontario was using a range of vaccine types.

“Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines are available at mass vaccination venues such as hospitals and university campuses while AstraZeneca vaccines are being offered at participating pharmacies.”

In addition to vaccinating by age group, she said Phase 2 also gave priority to people living or working in hotspot areas — areas where case numbers were rising. She added that people with essential jobs that could not be done from home were also given priority.

“So were the homeless community, people living in shelters for various reasons, and people in congregated housing. People with health issues got priority too. For example, people with a body mass index (BMI) above 40, immune-compromising health conditions, or developmental disabilities, and anyone with cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and dementia,” she said.

Yen said Phase 3 is being implemented now, whereby everyone who wants the vaccine can get it. She said young people above the age of 12 started getting their first dose on May 23, and many had already received their second dose.

“I have been impressed by how well the vaccination process has been handled. There were clear guidelines and standard operating procedures (SOPs), and they were strictly followed,” she said.

She also said that many innovative efforts were made to ensure that marginalised communities with the most barriers, such as having health risks and limited access to online systems, were not left behind.

“Marginal communities are being serviced by mobile vaccination clinics that conduct door-to-door visits and pop-up clinics in priority neighbourhoods.”

In general, she commended the quick and assertive action taken by the Canadian federal and provincial governments with regard to handling the Covid-19 pandemic.

In response to a question on whether this meant there was nothing to criticise, she said, “Not quite. For one thing, the schedules for lockdown and reopening have often been inconsistent and confusing.”

Adjustments amid the pandemic

The pandemic has resulted in drastic changes in lifestyle for many people, with most people staying home as much as possible in the interest of safety.

When asked how it was like for her, Yen replied, “Well, we did hunker down at home. We wanted to stay safe and to keep others safe. Of course, we still had to do the occasional grocery run!”

“Now that I am a senior, I appreciated the fact that many large stores set aside a special hour, from 8am to 9am, so seniors above 60 and frontliners could buy their groceries and other essentials before anyone else arrived. With the stores much less crowded, I could shop with ease.”

However, she informed that most stored could not open at all, and many of the ones that could either placed limits on the number of shoppers allowed inside or would not allow customers in at all. Instead, customers had to pick up purchases on the curb outside.

“Stores and shopping plazas converted their parking lots into pickup sites,” she explained. “All we had to do was order online or by phone, call the store when we got there, and tell them where we were parked. Staff members would deliver the items to our car.”

She shared that overall, much to her amazement, she had been coping very well.

“Denied my usual schedule of international travel and going home to Malaysia, I have spent the cold winter months finally learning to bake, spent the early spring germinating seeds indoors, and the warm summer months becoming an enthusiastic gardener,” said Yen.

She said that due to being out of the house more often now to tend to her garden, she had gotten to know her neighbours better.

“Canadians are not as used to socialising as we Malaysians are. Neighbours walking past our house, on their evening walks or walking their pets, have stopped to exchange brief chats or to talk about our new flowerbeds,” she remarked.

Shifting gradually towards normality

Yen said things were not quite back to complete normalcy just yet. Nevertheless, she said after being under lockdown for months, Ontario had moved to Step 3 of its plan for easing public health measures on July 16 this year.

“It means that life is finally starting to get back to what we were used to before the pandemic.

“Grooming services and indoor fitness classes are open, but they still have to allow for physical distancing and the usual good hygiene. Spectator sports are allowed, with 50 percent capacity indoors and 75 percent outdoors,” she said.

She added that restaurants were now finally open but with a maximum indoor capacity of 25 percent or 250 people, whichever was less.

“None of that really affects us, though, because we don’t go out that much anyway. If we do go into a store or some other indoor public place, we still need to wear a mask that covers the mouth, nose, and chin, and we still have to observe social distancing rules,” she said.

Yen said that, for her, the best thing about Step 3 was that she can finally have more than a couple of friends at their house.  

“Step 3 allows people to invite up to 25 of their friends to dine together indoors. That was one change that truly made my day. The thing I have missed most during this pandemic, purely for my mental health, has been socialising and sharing meals with friends.

“We have a lot of Malaysian friends, including a good many Sarawakians, in the Greater Toronto area, and many of them are excellent cooks. We have indeed brought the ‘makan’ culture with us, and enjoy being able to ‘makan’ together,” she said.

She said that during the full lockdown, people were only allowed to have one visitor at a time and only if this visitor lived alone and did not socialise with anyone else. 

“That meant I couldn’t meet up with my many Sarawakian friends, including my Form 6 school teacher and his wife who now live in Toronto, or visit our Iban friend Robert Terro (originally from Sri Aman) and his wife Norma at their beautiful cottage by a woodland lake three hours north of the city,” she said.

Then, during Step 1, she said people could have up to four guests but only for an outdoor get-together.

“That was an improvement, but it’s not the way we Malaysians like to do things! Step 2 allowed us to have up to five people indoors but that still wasn’t enough. I’m so glad we’re now at Step 3,” she said.

She said even though Ontario was now at Step 3, people still had to observe the SOPs. “It will take us time to get used again to the lifestyle that we used to take for granted.”

All in all, Yen said the hardest part of the pandemic has been not being able to get on a plane and fly back to Kuching to reunite with family and friends there.

She pointed out that international flights to and from Toronto were still very limited.

“Canada will open its borders to fully vaccinated Americans starting Aug 9 after a nearly 17-month closure, and (all being well) will welcome all fully vaccinated international travellers beginning Sept 7, but for us there are still too many concerns to think seriously about international travel.”

Sharing her concerns, she said they worried about the health risks of just being at the airport or on the flight, on top of the need to comply with quarantine protocols upon arrival.

“Also, we are not ready for mandatory quarantine upon arrival in Kuala Lumpur or Singapore, not to mention the possibility of having to quarantine again in Sarawak if we are delayed during transit,” she said.

“However, once things open up more, we will definitely go back to Kuching,” Yen promised. “It’s been a long time for us all.”