This will be interesting as there are numbers of new members from around the world! We'll be able to compare.

I live in the state of Kansas, right smack dab in the middle of the USA. Our governor locked us down relatively early compared to other states, and we were the first to cancel school for the rest of the school year. That sent many of my friends into a state of shock as their kids were suddenly stuck at home with them and they couldn't leave. Today our governor extended our stay-at-home order to May 3rd.

In our area, there are many restaurants and small businesses that, even though the interior of the business is closed, you can order via phone or online, pay, drive up the the doors, they'll run the items out to your vehicle and put them in without any contact. So my husband and I have been trying our best to support small local restaurants and such.

The only items we've had trouble finding are Clorox and Clorox wipes. My littlest daughter is potty training, so I'm going through that stuff rapidly.
Oh, one other thing (since Twigs mentioned it), we can't find sidewalk chalk anywhere. It's all sold out!

I haven't done much connecting with others outside of family. We met with our church small group once (we were busy the second time), and I'm going to try to meet with my MOPS group tonight. Been using Zoom (with passwords!). I used to use Skype but for me, it has COMPLETELY crashed and I can't fix it because their site on my end is down.

We want to look for the albatross.

Yeah... I can't imagine this happening even 20 years ago. Thank goodness for the internet for multiple reasons. It's certainly made life much more manageable.

I'm living in New Zealand, but was in South Carolina when it all accelerated; the schools closed early for spring break, churches stopped meeting together, and we had to stop the show I was doing (at Logos Theatre, famous for its Narnia plays! )

Family urged me to get home, as our borders were closing, and I was on an ESTA visa waiver and would not get health treatment if I were sick - and might end up as an illegal alien if I got stuck. Arriving home required two weeks of self-isolation, in case I had brought the virus with me.

Now I am in what is called a 'bubble' - a household or family group, within which we are all asked to remain, with only minimal (and socially distanced) contact with others. Shopping is for essentials only, one shopper per household. Businesses and schools are closed except for essential services. My bubble has only me and cat Polly, plus a friend who is also on her own, AND her home helper and the helper's daughter. Hope they don't get contact with anyone else! I have been tested (last week) and it was negative.

NZ is a small country, with about 5 million, and most cases so far are linked to someone coming in from overseas, plus 'community transmission'. Sadly we have lost several elderly people in aged care facilities. Each day there is a TV press conference/announcement by the Prime Minister, and heads of Health and Police, to update us on statistics, trends, and rule updates.
We are in the third of four weeks of lockdown, and next week we will hear whether it is going to soften or stay at the same level. It's the same economics vs lives issue that most countries face.

Church has been online for a month now, and we also have breakout groups for a chat afterwards, using zoom. I try to have my coffee ready at the end of the service, just like a real service! I can also listen in to the church in SC that I attended, and others online.

It's the middle of autumn here, so temperatures are cooling, and I am starting to organise winter clothes. Hey presto, a bag of new knitting wool that has been in my cupboard nearly 3 years! Something to justify sitting in front of a TV screen!

Here is something positive: 104-year-old Minnesotan survives COVID-19.

I've noticed that while some items remain hard to find (toilet paper, cleaning supplies), others have gone through cycles of depletion and replenishment: bread, then yeast and flour, sometimes milk, etc.

I've found quite a few musical parodies and have enjoyed seeing some creativity and even mild humor about all this. Samples include:

My Favorite Things, another Sound of Music parody from the same people who made the one Twig's mentioned above.

Here is a parody of Somewhere Over the Rainbow

My favorite so far: a spoof of the Bee Gees' "Stayin' Alive" - Stayin' Inside - that catches the tone and falsetto of the original.

There are also numerous versions of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" out there.

fantasia, good for your governor to be pro-active in locking down early!

stargazer, that "Stayin' Inside" Bee Gees parody is definitely a favourite of mine too. Well done! Another favourite is "Baby, It's Covid Outside":

(Watch right until the end, hilarious!)

There are a number of really humorous memes out there, which I will post on my FB page from time-to-time.

I'm sure glad you're finally home, coracle!

That's good you're still able to work, Twig's, albeit on reduced hours.

We in Ontario went on lock-down about a month ago now. We are only allowed out in stores for essentials, and only one person from each family. Stores have reduced their hours and enacted plexiglass to protect the cashiers, 6' apart markings all through the store, particularly in the line-up areas, and one-way aisles, indicated by arrows.

Items sometimes difficult to find in stores: milk, laundry detergent, toilet paper, liquid soap, flour, frozen veggies. But I have found that if they're not in one day, they're most likely in the next.

Our purpose and goal for each day is to contact:
*nuclear and extended family members
*those in our area who are the most vulnerable—those who live alone, particularly the elderly and those with mental illness.
*neighbours and friends

I work with a dear single mom, and am dropping by her place tomorrow (outside only!) with a basket full of fresh fruits and vegetables, some muffins, some chocolate (of course!), quite a few crafty treats for her 6 year old, and an ice-cream gift certificate for both of them (Bartley's ice cream parlour, where we went at the Canadian Moot).

I talk with my 93 year old father a couple of times / day and grocery shop for him once a month (sharing this with others in the family) and for our daughter, who has a disability (and is in need of a hip replacement, but of course that has been postponed).

We contact people by phone, email, text, snail-mail cards, and video chat. The latter our kids and us make priority every Sunday afternoon. It's not nearly as good as being together in the same room, but at the same time, we are SO thankful for the technology that allows us to do this.

My husband and I have always loved having company in our home a couple of times / week, at least, so we are finding this sad not to be able to do this now, so we are finding creative ways by which to connect with those who need it most now.

Hymns and songs of praise have become even more meaningful during these days, so we have been really focusing on these (along with passing well-loved links on to others who we know could use the encouragement), along with reviewing Scripture memorization and reading. What hope in this trying time of upheaval and crisis.

I’m thankful that I had an opportunity to get together with all my siblings (there’s seven of us) and my parents when they celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary back in February before the whole world essentially started shutting down. We’re spread throughout the U.S. (Wisconsin, Nevada, and Arizona). Who knows when we’ll all be able to all get together like that again.

I’ve been able to work from home. Although sometimes I need to go into the office. I admit to being conflicted about this. I like being able to get out of the house once in a while. Yet also know there is some risk of infection with going into work.

Good to hear from you, Sty. And how wonderful you were able to be with all your siblings at the grand occasion of your parents' 60th wedding celebration happened before the lockdown. (Congratulations to them. What a milestone!)

I’ve been able to work from home. Although sometimes I need to go into the office. I admit to being conflicted about this. I like being able to get out of the house once in a while. Yet also know there is some risk of infection with going into work.

You are lucky then, because here in New South Wales, my youngest daughter, a chemist in a paint factory, has been issued a certificate by her employer, to inform any police who may stop her, that she has a valid reason for her daily commute. She says she may not be able to visit us for even one day on weekends any more for now. Travel anywhere here, you see, is restricted to necessary reasons only, such as shopping (& not every day either ), or for compassionate reasons, which may or may not include visiting her family in lockdown.

My middle daughter lost her job when the colleges & schools were shut down by the third week in March. We will have to wait until after the end of April to find out what will happen next, especially as it would have been school holidays anyway right now.

The first businesses to be shut down were pubs, clubs, theatres, cinemas, parties, even beach parties, eat-in restaurants, cafeterias, except those selling take away food, sporting venues, anywhere where people could congregate in crowds of more than 100. Then it was reduced to 20 then only 10 people at a funeral, & only the bride, groom, celebrant & witnesses at a wedding, all keeping at a safe distance from each other. We were all told to go home & stay there as much as possible. Then churches, libraries, nail salons, even hairdressers were shut down as well, though some may reopen in due course. There is much anguish about the sporting seasons being disrupted, not only locally, but also internationally, because people wanted to be able to watch the latest competitions on TV. Even the Tokyo Olympic Games have been postponed to next year, I hear. This was even before either UK or USA, themselves, started to get the coronavirus in earnest.

Our eldest daughter is living with us, so she is okay for now. Eighty four year old husband self-distances himself during the day, in our backyard, where he is working on a garden retaining wall, which we nickname Hadrian's Wall, whilst our next door neighbour practises his accordion playing, on his own back veranda on the other side of our side fence. Over our adjoining back fences a mutual neighbour is getting an extension put onto the back of her house, so the men have plenty of male company to prevent any sort of loneliness for now.

I can remain in the main bedroom, with an adjoining balcony, to keep my distance, if & when necessary, being not only over 70, but having an underlying, life threatening condition, like asthma or COPD. Both husband & myself were able to get routine flu shots, from our GP, but our two eldest have to line up to get theirs due to the overwhelming demand this year. Nicole, our youngest, usually gets her flu shots through work. For those who need to visit doctors, routine six month specialist check-ups are now to be done over the phone, rather than face to face contact, with more urgent cases, cancer, for instance, being given preference.

Initially, in February, most of our government's concern about coronavirus has been triggered by the need to repatriate Australians, who needed to return home, urgently, including those Australian citizens with work, trade, family & tourist connections in Wuhan, itself, a large busy city, easily as big as Sydney, as well as the rest of China, plus Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea & Japan. It was only shortly afterwards that New Zealand started to get involved, along with ourselves, & then with the other South East Asian nations in this part of the world, including Philippines & Indonesia. Papua Niugini hasn't been anywhere near as affected as far as I know. But more lately, here, in my own Penrith, NSW community, there have been health care workers, who have been infected, & the main risk is in aged care homes, one of them being just up the road from here, part of a retirement village. So do be most careful of your own health, Courtenay & any other NarniaWebbers, who do any sort of health care work.

I've noticed that while some items remain hard to find (toilet paper, cleaning supplies), others have gone through cycles of depletion and replenishment: bread, then yeast and flour, sometimes milk, etc.

Packets of toilet rolls, paper hand towels, Kleenex or Sorbent tissues & the like have been bugbears, though intermittently available, if one likes to visit our local supermarket early (my privilege as an over 70 year old shopper), between 7.00 am & 8.am. But otherwise much the same here, with products like potatoes, cornflour, noodles or rice being either unavailable at all or else only available at some other supermarket across town. At the moment, our biggest worry is how to get our broken down oven either fixed or replaced. Tradesmen don't like to visit now, especially in these days when they have a good excuse.

Never mind, those COVID-19 parodies of songs Pattertwig's pal, johobbit, & fantasia posted, did cheer me up. Thank you.

My work schedule has been a bit crazy because of the virus. My job is healthcare related, so it's considered "essential." I'm working less overall, but we're constantly switching up the schedule to keep as few people in the office at once as possible. I'm also having to carry "traveling papers" basically letting any curious cops know I have a good reason to be out and about. Smacks of Nazi Germany, but I understand the importance of it.
My sister, myself and my nephew are all celebrating birthdays on lockdown. We've managed to keep in touch with Zoom, but it'll be awhile before the family can all get back together again.
My siblings and I usually put on a small monthly concert for a local nursing home, but naturally the home shut its doors after the lockdown. We were fortunately able to film and send them some videos of us singing/playing anyway!
The initial "toilet paper wars" here have kind of died down... we had to ship in 80 rolls from Missouri a few weeks ago, so as not to have to delve too deep into the Black Friday- like madness going on in the stores.
Courage! We are all between the paws of the true Aslan!

We are on week 4 (I believe) of lockdown here in Illinois. We've been totally staying cooped up at home, only going out if we must for work or grocery shopping. We aren't suppose to gather in groups of 3 or more, which is a good call given we have so many cases in this area, so I haven't been doing anything else. I had ordered some face masks and they just arrived yesterday - really cute ones, a star wars mask and a Mickey & Minnie mask!

Cleander, at least it's the opposite of Nazi Germany, helping to keep people alive and healthy! That's so nice you were still able to film your little concert for the nursing home. I bet the residents appreciated it a lot, they are probably extra lonely at this time.

We are in our 4th week of lockdown at what is called Alert Level 4, here.

The Prime Minister announced this afternoon that we will continue at Alert level 4 until midnight on Monday here (approx a week from posting this) and then go on to Alert Level 3 for 2 weeks.
Then there will be a reassessment, to see what to do next.

This still keeps many people in their homes except for exercise and essential shopping, but begins to open some schools (I think they are planning it so far). Some more businesses will reopen (if they can open safely), and people can exercise or do individual sport further from home, even go swimming at the beach.

This explains the basics of our four Alert Levels:
https://covid19.govt.nz/assets/resources/tables/COVID-19-alert-levels-summary.pdf

I've really been appreciating this thread and thinking about what I could contribute — for now, though, there's just something I wanted to share and I can't think of a better place to put it, as it's certainly something designed to spread some cheer and inspiration in this difficult time. It's a joyous Hallelujah Chorus "signed" by people in lockdown! (I think it must have been inspired by the joke video of "silent monks" that was doing the rounds a few years ago.)

While I was watching it earlier, I noticed the video comes from College Church in Wheaton, which I thought sounded familiar, so I looked it up — and yes, it's the church founded by Wheaton College in Illinois, the same college that has the library dedicated to C.S. Lewis and six other important Christian authors from the UK! (Here's their website: Marion E. Wade Center I've just watched their introductory video and I will have to visit there some day, definitely.)

Hope everyone here in the NarniaWeb family is keeping safe and well.

That Hallelujah Chorus is grrreat, Courtenay!

It was my life's longing to visit the Wade Center, and I finally got to live this deep aspiration in June of 2013 with a few other NarniaWebbers. Aside from desiring to work at The Kilns (as if that is ever going to happen ), my other dream job is to work at the Wade Center. ♥ Do try and get there, Courtenay! It really is amazing. Even any photos I see of that lovely building cause my heart to beat faster with anticipation. Truly a 'mecca' for CSL and Tolkien fans, alongside Sayers, Williams, Chesterton, Barfield, MacDonald.

Back to the lockdown: it seems the first week or two was the most challenging, as each of us sought to find our new isolation routine. Now that that is established, the weeks are going by at a reasonable pace, with plenty to do around home, both inside and now outside with spring arriving here in Ontario.

And, as always, there are many people with whom to keep in close contact, especially those folk who are struggling more through this strange time.

As quite a few people have gone back to work this week, our roads are more like normal (not empty!), but most of us are still in lockdown with 2 metre distances when encountering others outside our home "bubble".
My sister and I have begun meeting at a park between our homes, to walk 2m apart and have a good chat! We even took packed lunches to sit in the shade of trees yesterday on a very warm day.

This is part of an email to a relation; it refers to the show I had been in before I had to come home early.

However this is what we have been given, a dark and tragic script instead of the glorious and productive one we expected this year. It is what we make of it that will decide how we look back on it. Just as the story of Peep Behind the Scenes has salvation and joy for the woman who had chosen a glorious life but found its harsh reality instead, I must make good things out of the isolated and fearful time our world is living through, and be able to look back, proud that I did not just occupy myself with pleasant things but with doing good, doing "God's Work".

'Tis so lovely you and your sister can have these times out-of-doors together, coracle.

As quite a few people have gone back to work this week

Wow! Only our essential workers are allowed to go in to work. Everyone else is at home (the majority of the population). No idea when we will begin opening up again. There are gradual opening plans made, but they will not start being enacted until certain factors transpire, and even then shutdown will happen again if the virus, after diminishing, raises its head once more.

The government here is particularly concerned for the 'flu season, which for us is in the Autumn (late September onward through the winter). Even if the virus dies down over the warm summer months, they are wondering if the projected infamous second outbreak will occur then. They are very much on their guard.

Many feel—us included—that our Premier has done an excellent job of leading us through this. We are grateful.
But there are many concerns all around: those in the far more vulnerable long-term care homes; those suffering from depression and mental illness; those in abusive situations; those drowning this time in excessive alcohol consumption. There are hot-lines set up for these. One sees both the best and the worst of society in a crisis such as this. May we also do our parts in helping and caring in the safest and best way we can.