A friend who has been living (and is now sheltering in place with his family) in Nairobi, Kenya, posted this brief description on Facebook.
Went shopping today. Once again, Kenya is doing really well with what it has. The market I went to made me wash hands with sanitizer and a nurse wearing a mask took my temperature upon entry. I stopped by the drugstore first and found boxes of latex gloves and 3M 8210 masks for purchase. Got masks for the three of us, gloves, hand sanitizer, and picked up my medicine. Went to Carrefour and was handed a pair of disposable latex gloves to wear while shopping. On the floor were distance markers so shoppers could socially distance themselves. Shelves were well stocked. No hoarding taking place. Part of the reason, of course, is that many Kenyans are poor and can’t afford to hoard (or to stop working, which is going to complicate an order to stay inside because you can’t telework if you are a street hawker) but part of the reason is that they simply aren’t panicking and are doing their best. Good on them. Not saying it won’t get worse, or get ugly, but they are trying.
Very interesting.
Our supermarkets and drug stores have gotten as far as having wipes available as you enter the store. None are doing temperature screening, as far as I know, although that would certainly make sense. None are distributing gloves on entry.
At least in these areas, we are behind Kenya, it seems.
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More than twenty years ago my partner and I spent four months in northern Italy, staying mostly in house and apartment rentals from Montepulciano and Montalcino to Siena to a semi-rural area outside Verona. Without exception, every supermarket we shopped in was exceptionally clean and had disposable plastic gloves (the same thickness as the plastic bags for produce) at the entry to the fruit and vegetable section. You were expected to wear the gloves while selecting your food for purchase and to dispose of them at the exit. Everyone did it. When I mentioned that to a Safeway produce manager upon our return to Hawai`i he just laughed.
You make good points on what market places are not doing for their employees and customers safety. Bravo for Kenya’s common sense approach.
Some vendors at Festival Market in Waipahu have disposable plastic gloves available for customers to handle fish. It’s really a courtesy to prevent the fish slime from getting on everyone’s hands. But it also unintentionally serves as a sanitary barrier.
If a vendor in a small-business can do that, certainly a supermarket chain can, too. Unless it gets banned by our governmental legislators.
It’s important for a world perspective to get reports that seem to mimic ours, yet from the other side of the globe.
Be helpful to have some tips on immune strengthening while in lockdown. If we’re going to survive this and for certain mutations, it seems a good strategy would be for interesting reporting.