COVID-19 over here is a national disaster.” “All has not gone insane, it’s not the end of the world, we will get through it. Believe it or not, in spite of the coronavirus, I still got stuck in traffic last week."”

— Chris Kendall

An Englishman living in Basel, Switzerland, on the German and France borders says the novel coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic came suddenly in early February and closed the country down.

Chris Kendall, 31, lives with his partner Clea in the city of Basel where he owns a sports bar and she teaches at an international school.

“Basel is one of Switzerland’s early hot spots, our first infection was on the 26th of February,” Kendall said. “My mum is a nurse and when anything medical comes up I ask her ‘how concerning is it?’ Still, even then we didn’t know what the virus was. It made its way out of China to Italy before we were ready for it. We thought it was a nasty cold.”

He said the coronavirus was brought back by a young teacher assistant who had been in Milan, Italy, on holiday with her boyfriend. It wasn’t until after she returned home that she started noticing symptoms.

“They closed the school and isolated the students, parents, staff, over 100 people,” Kendall said.

Most of the children were found to be asymptomatic with a minor cough. However studies had just revealed that the virus was devastating to 50 and 60-year-olds.

“The second big outbreak in our area was directly across the French border, 1,000 people exposed at a funeral by someone who traveled up from Italy to attend.”

By March 7, gatherings over 200 were restricted.

“Then on the 13th of March we went into full lock-down (Happy Birthday to me),” Kendall said.

All sports facilities were closed and stores were only selling food, pet supplies and medicine. Kendall said many of the markets had extra curricular items such as toys, hardware, anything that was not essential, roped off to the public.

Kendall and his partner are both in the risk category. Kendall has bronchiectasis and Clea is four months in remission from cancer. He has been spending a lot of time at his parents’ house in the countryside, which is big enough for them to self-isolate.

“I wear a mask whenever I’m shopping, am fairly obsessive with hand sanitation while I’m out, avoiding public transport, reading our flatmate the riot act when she went to a barbecue the first weekend of isolation (had the neighbors knocking on our door to see what was going on).”

With the borders closed, what used to be a 30 minute drive now takes 55 minutes.

“Normally I cross into France twice from my parents house to my apartment, I shop in Germany because it is 20 percent cheaper which is adding up alarmingly,” Kendall said. “The Germans actually closed their borders first to stop cross-border shoppers threatening their local food stockpiles. I eat at French restaurants. There are villages along the border whose nearest amenities are across the border and now have quite long journeys for even the basic stuff.”

From his parents’ home, both France and Germany are within sight.

“If you pull up Basel on a map, the city is in the corner of Switzerland, France and Germany,” Kendall said. “France is the hill to my left and in the distance, I can see snow-topped mountains in Germany.”

Now he has a 40 minute detour into the mountains to get anywhere.

“The Germans closed their borders a week earlier, Switzerland was slow to close the borders,” he said. “France never actually closed their borders.”

While Switzerland has been in lock down since March 13, his bar has suffered.

“They closed all sports facilities, and since I was marked as a sports facility, not a park, I got closed,” Kendall said. “I’ve got about 1,000 Swiss francs (similar in value to the dollar) in beer about to expire at the bar, which I run on behalf of the rugby club. It’s been a nuisance, but I’ve already had 400-500 Swiss francs worth expire.”

Kendall said he has heard that he might be able to claim the product and get some of his money back. As long as he doesn’t pay himself, his bar is secure. His partner is considered a government employee, so is supported during the closure.

“Some people feel we have been closed down unnecessarily, but people aren’t protesting in the streets. It is a very orderly country,” Kendall said. “People are wandering in the parks, and police are telling them to spread out or disperse.”

As his partner Clea is still in remission she has regular check-ups at the hospital. During the second week in April, hospitals announced that all elective and non-urgent hospital appointments were canceled.

“My heart skipped a beat whenever I found out that she’d gone to her normal hospital appointment,” Kendall said. “Local doctors could still see you, if you had COVID-19 symptoms, you call a line and they tell you what to do.”

While some products are harder to get, Kendall said they can still get what they need.

“We did not buy all the toilet rolls, and fresh vegetables (selection) isn’t brilliant, but it’s not the variety we usually have,” he said. “The biggest thing I have noticed, one of the supermarkets that is usually pretty stocked and supplies other markets is massive. Deep shelves are almost three-quarters empty. It’s unheard of.”

While they can still order things online, he said the worst part is hardware stores being closed.

“People have a lot of free time and are not allowed to actually buy anything. It took about a month to set up an online order,” he said.

With his breathing ailment and her remission, the fact that the disease is described as “drowning in your own lungs” is terrifying and they are complying with restrictions — which are loosening.

“We got it ahead of the rest of the world,” Kendall said. “The first restrictions are easing on April 27, starting with the grocery stores. Hospitals will have to start non-essential stuff again. May 11 we should start seeing some shops open. Single-person sports — running and what have you will hopefully start back up and running tracks will open. I have one around the bar.”

But since his bar is categorized as a sports facility, Kendall said he doesn’t think he will be returning to work any time soon.

“There is no point in me going back to work,” he said. “To be honest, from what we are starting to hear, I don’t think we are getting that far. I think there is going to be a second wave.”

While Switzerland is about to hit its warm season, he said it is nothing like the United States — which he describes as a slow boil.

“Office jobs can be done from home,” Kendall said, which is what most of his family does. He said they are both now perfectly happy to be working from home.

Daycare centers remain closed while elementary schools are planning to open and high schools plan to reopen in June. Most of the population is still being paid.

“The way it is working here, the employer applies to the government and they pay him and he pays you 80 percent of your wage,” Kendall said, and explained that it is prohibited to allow someone to rent a place they can’t afford. “So 80 percent is plenty for rent, bills and a little bit to put food on the table.”

Closing the country during COVID-19 also canceled local holidays such as Fasnacht, an event that brings in over 1,000 people to see carnivals and parades with over 200,000 spectators.

“Income from Fasnacht and Baselworld, a watch and jewelry trade show, usually held in late March or early April, was canceled,” he said. “There’s a lot of small businesses that will suffer from losing that, and there are people in the area around the convention center who rent their entire houses to companies and pay off the mortgage for the year.”

While Kendall said he knows COVID-19 is not the end of the world, it has certainly halted things.

“COVID-19 over here is a national disaster,” he said. “All has not gone insane, it’s not the end of the world, we will get through it. Believe it or not, in spite of the coronavirus, I still got stuck in traffic last week.”