[Mallika]

Hi Wendi,

Great write-up, and I think you shared some great points there. Like you mentioned, living in isolation is not natural for our species, but this is what COVID-19 has done to us now. Last week, Ireland had the highest rate of COVID-19 cases (per million people) in the world and it has been pretty traumatising for my family who are back in Singapore. They are super worried about me, and this is pretty scary for me too. But we have no other way but to face this through!

I'm sorry to hear that your elderly neighbours have died because of COVID-19. Death of someone just adds to all the stress there already is.

I think the best we can do right now is to remain optimistic and focus on each day at a time. If we have something to work on, like school or work, it pays to put our energy into it so that our mind remains engaged in something productive. Exercising is also a great way to beat the blues.

Let's hope that this year will see much improvement to the global state of this horrible pandemic