Читать книгу Let them all tell you what happened - Mercedes Pescador - Страница 27

For 41 days now, my 11-year-old son is getting his virtual lessons at home. They are too long so he says he would prefer to go to school. Besides, he misses being with his friends.

This is my second quarantine. I have an 11-week-old baby who suffers an allergic rhinitis which he has inherited from me, and today I had to take him urgently to the paediatrician for the hexavalent vaccine against rhinitis, I couldn’t go earlier due to the pandemic. However, there’s such a scarcity of vaccines that I had to order privately the ones for rotavirus and pneumococcus, spending 85% of my salary on vaccines, medicines and private consultations (as I don’t want to expose my baby to the virus taking him to a public hospital), although the money can be reinstated. Luckily, I get my full salary during my 112 days maternity leave. I live with my parents, whose business in the municipal market had to close a month ago, so they depend on my salary and some savings. The prices of the basic shopping basket are rising and there’s a shortage of face masks and alcoholic gel.

And furthermore, there is a dispute between the government and the members of congress about the extensions of the quarantine. Only one member of the family can go out to do the shopping, but it gets crowded as many people still don’t believe in the danger of COVID-19.

The government gave an aid of 300 dollars to the majority of people who don’t have a job, and the workers like me who contribute with AFP have asked they should give us back at least 30% of the savings from our pensions. Congressmen have been postponing this matter, but yesterday the minister of Finance and Inland Revenue spoke to explain that our savings didn’t exist anymore because the previous governments had spent them, so the amounts they gave us to date was fictitious.