Working from home, knitting, finishing household projects that have been put on hold for years, and even singing to pets are just some of the things people in isolation are doing to pass the time and keep themselves motivated.
Michelle Webb is one of the growing number of people putting themselves in isolation.
The 54-year-old has Crohn’s disease (an inflammatory bowel disease) and ankylosing spondylitis (an inflammatory disease that causes some of the small bones in the spine to fuse) and is on immunosuppression injections as part of her treatment.
‘‘It means I can’t even fight a common cold. I have no immunity whatsoever.’’
Her doctor has recommended she isolate herself for the foreseeable future.
‘‘Absolutely nobody else comes around now and I only communicate by phone or social media.
‘‘People have been really, really kind and offered to help if I need anything.’’
Mrs Webb was managing to keep herself occupied by knitting and doing art and craft activities.
However, she said it would not keep her spirits up forever and she was now investigating other activities to help keep her motivated.
‘‘One thing I’m trying to do is stay away from the television and keep off social media, because all the talk about coronavirus just scares me too much.
‘‘I’m scared to death that I might catch it.’’
One person who's not worried about how she will fill in her days was Sarah Eustace.
The 31-year-old Dunedin woman has an 8-month-old son, Nixon, who needs her full attention almost every hour of the day.
Mrs Eustace put herself in isolation because she has psoriatic arthritis and is on three different immunosuppression medications.
‘‘For me, if I was to catch it, I would probably never recover.
‘‘Only my mother and my husband are allowed in the house.’’
Most of her day was spent feeding her son, cleaning the house and resting as much as possible.
Another woman, who declined to be named, said she and her husband both had asthma, and because her husband worked from home, she decided to work from home as well.
‘‘The less people that are in contact with each other, the better.
‘‘I don’t want to give anyone what I might catch and I don’t want to get anything that other people might catch.
‘‘The other concern that we have is, if we get colds or flus, that’s going to add an extra burden to the health system.
‘‘I’m always getting colds and flus. If we can all take that burden off the health system, then the whole system is going to be way better off.’’
She was not cutting herself off entirely from the outdoors.
‘‘We’re going into our garden and we’re taking our dogs for walks at night time when there’s not too many people around. And when we see people, we are steering clear of them.’’
Aside from work, she said a lot of her time was taken up watching updates about the virus on social media.
‘‘I’m also doing useless things like writing a book, I’m writing music, and I’m singing to my dogs.’’
A Dunedin man, who also declined to be named, said his doctor recommended he be isolated because he had a chronic health condition which caused immune deficiency.
He is unable to do his job from home, so he is now at his remote Central Otago holiday home, where he is working on a small building project in his back yard.
