Staying home during the COVID-19 pandemic: Day 4

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With the cases of COVID-19 continually going up in California, Gov Gavin Newsom has ordered residents in the whole state to shelter in place last night. Daddy still reports to work because he's counted as an essential service provider. Mommy is slowly adjusting to the work-from-home arrangement she has with her office. Biboy is pulling double duty as daddy day care (with Anna supporting him) and as remote tech support in the hospital. Barbara hasn't been asked to report to work. Val is also working from home. And I am trying to finish the final technical paper in my  current consultancy; good timing because I only have a few weeks left before the baby arrives.

I have to admit that the prospect of giving birth in these conditions is both exciting and worrisome. Val and I are finalising our baby's name, which helps us both focus on the positives despite the epidemic. But as the public health system, worldwide, gets overwhelmed by the sheer number of the sick and the desperate, I have to wonder if I'll be able to give birth without the guilt that the hospital bed I'll be occupying during delivery might be of better use for a health care provider who has become ill. I know that things will work out and my medical team will capably handle my labour and delivery. Obviously, I try not to think too much about the future because I won't be productive mulling excessively about the unknown.

And so I concentrate on the technical paper. Matty did a roll call to check who among the team has some semblance of normalcy and productivity at this time. Jhoanne, Suva, Arindam, and I have signified that we can work from home (because that's my work arrangement now anyway) but I told him that I can only actively work for another four or five weeks as I have to start prepping the baby's nursery. Suddenly, the team has a hard deadline. We need to deliver a workable draft soon. Good thing is I've been working on decoding the data for the past few days and am now at the visualisation stage.

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