Hello, I would like to share the experience of my family, here in the Philippines, so I have a cousin who is a nurse, in one of our regional hospitals, and one of her patients was suspected of Covid 19. Then once it has been declared, she also has been declared a person under investigation and because she went home the following night, all my family back in the province, they were all declared as persons under monitoring. So they were cleared fortunately, because my cousin was cleared of the test, tested negative. However, since my hometown has been hit the worst in the province, there was another one who tested positive who was found out to have gone to the market, where my god mother and god father have a stall. Therefore the market was closed and they have been declared once more, persons under monitoring, so we're waiting for the results. Here in Manila we have been locked for three weeks, and the Quarantine has been extended until 30th of April. So the very busy street of Etza, which is the busiest street of the whole island, suddenly became empty, and the pollution level became better.

Hello, I am a 24 years old Colombian, currently living - halted - in Turkey, Istambul. I want to give a positive perspective of what COVID has meant to my life, although, I am currently alone since my family is thousands of miles away. In this opportunity, I have become closer to my friends and to the people close to me. In a way, my romantic life has improved since, in these moments of preventive quarantine, I have had the opportunity to spend more time with the person I am interested in and it has been an opportunity to get to know each other more and have a different lifestyle. I have also been able to connect more with my friends here, whether through the internet or before when we could go out, and all that type of social life to distract my mind from the situation that's going on right now. So, although everything is very negative to a certain extent, it's always important to see the bright side of everything.

Hello, I live in Portugal and I have been at home for 3 weeks and working from home. I am a routine type of person and this breaking of routine has influenced me up a lot. I am still trying to adapt to this completely different day to day. I suffer from anxiety, and it has been a journey to deal with it within these four walls. The first weeks were the most difficult so far, mostly due to work. I am the Director of Operations in a company and the possibility of having to fire people took the best of me and of my anxiety. We didn't fire anyone and if everything continues to go as planned, we won't have to. Sports and yoga have helped a lot to clear the mind and keep calm. But the longing starts to hurt, I am especially missing parents... But my family, my husband, my sister and my small dog have helped me a lot. Thanks.

Hi everyone, I'm Vincenza, I'm 35 years old. I'm italian and I'm from Milan, so one fo the most affected areas in the world, I think from Coronavirus. And yeah this virus has affected my life in a serious way, in the sense that I'm an International Volunteer for the Red Cross, so my organization obbliged me to come back and to stop my field mission. I was in Africa, so this virus has impacted my life in this way, my organization obbliged to evacute all personnel, so now I came back to Italy, at home. It's quite hard for me, passing from the real action of the field mission to the inactivity of the quarantine, stuck at home. How do I cope with this situation? I find some distractions, I do things, I do action, but with no pressure, no deadlines, but with pleasure. I try to do each day something useful for me, for myself. I'm writing a lot, listening to music, listening to radio, to pdocasts, being in contact with friends, wharing my feelings with them. But to do everyday, finding something that can distract my feelings form this situation, in order to be prepared to post-virus life and have the sensation of not having wasted my time, so this is my experience. Thank you for this opportunity, thank you for sharing, because sharing is a bit caring.. so I would like to say hello to everybody, and I tell it also in Italian: "grazie per l'occasione, grazie per questa partecipazione e speriamo di rivederci tutti e di tornare alla nostra vecchia vita e di riabbracciarci, ciao" [thank you for the opportunity, for letting me take part, I hope we get to see eachother again, to comeback to our old life and hug eachother ! Bye]

My name is Celina, I am 27 years old and live in Dresden. The restrictions that came with Corona took me by surprise due to their rapid development. At first I didn't really want to believe that the virus would spread rapidly and that it would now reach us, or what the consequences would be. But how does Covid-19 affect my life? Actually, I can't complain: I have nothing specific to endure because of the virus, I don't have to fear for my existence like many others. But the virus makes me think. And some things have changed for me, too. I was supposed to start a new job Mid-March. Due to the virus, my start has been postponed to the beginning of May, and I am now looking forward more and more to starting work, to having a regular job again, to having colleagues around me. On the other hand, the virus has taught me to spend time with myself again and I am rediscovering old hobbies like drawing and handicrafts. Furthermore, I suddenly realize how many different contacts I normally have. I start to miss my volleyball team, because our training was cancelled. But this strange situation shows that there is more than just the sport that connects me and my team. Recently we took part in an online pub quiz via Skype conference. As I am a church member, I now realize how much I miss the worship services with the church, especially at this time around Easter. But there are also some positive things to report. So for a few weeks now I don't see anybody anymore, except a family I help with child care. Since I am their only social contact, we spend a very intensive time together, which will, I am quite sure, strenghten our bonds even more together in the future.

Hello, I would like to thank you for your initiative, which I find interesting! I'm a Tunisian student, I'm studying in Paris. Following this crisis, the courses are still maintained, but online. I live in a university residence where we started to organize our collective life together. For example, we make a schedule so that the kitchen is only used by two people at the same time. The same goes for the laundry machines. As far as I'm concerned, I lost my student job, which has been a small disruption for me financially. Otherwise I try to enjoy the 12 m2 of my room, listen to music, read books and above all not to be passive. I try to renew my energy, and even if the lock-down is a bit hard, we will get out of it.

I wouldn't say Corona is impacting me too much in the moment, luckily, because I am writing my master thesis, and the only thing that is very sad is that I cannot meet up with my classmates in the university anymore to exchange about progress and motivate each other. To overcome that, me and my classmates started a "skype fika". "Fika", in Sweden, is a term for a moment to drink coffee and have a snack together. And as we were studying in Lund, in southern Sweden, we first learnt about "fika" in person, and now we do the virtual version over skype while being in different places around the world or sitting and writing our master thesis from home. I am 25 and I am in Germany now.

Hi, I am 24 years old and live in Northern Italy near Turin, and I've been stuck at home for over a month. And although it may seem strange after a month in quarantine, you get used to it. You even get used to staying a meter away from other people, you get used to online lessons, to university exams via skype, you get used to everything. We got used to seeing our friends only through a computer, to greet our relatives only through a computer, and we should also get used to wearing masks when we leave the house, but this is not a big problem, because you leave the house less and less often, and only for matters of pressing necessity. But there are things we can't, and we don't want to get used to. We do not want to get used to seeing hospitals taken by assault, and we do not want to get used to seeing intensive care unit beds disputed between more patients, and above all, we do not want to see the army trucks taking away the victims. Because there are habits that once the emergency is over we can finally abandon, and then there are the victims, those do not come back.

Hey, I am Gudrita from Iceland, and before my 30th birthday, I decided to challenge myself and start a big fundraiser for an art project in Bali that I have been planning to do for at least two years. When boarders started to get closed, I tried not to panic, but it was hard, and I tried to promote my project and fundraiser. It was difficult but I didnt surrender, and I am really happy because I just reached the goal! I know that there many other important things going on but I think it is also important to keep on being creative.

The impact that the corona crisis has on my life is that it made me realize how time and time quality is measured by the people with whom we share it. Most of the things I do in my routine concerning work, study, exercise I have been able to maintain, even in the corona crisis, by adapting them. So, my life has not changed much in terms of what I produce daily. But what has certainly changed a lot is the opportunity to see, share, explore the world and for people to be together. So I think what the Corona crisis has taught me is that, often, we are with people and we actually pick up the phone to text someone else, to see something on Instagram and we forget that being together, present, being able to hug, touch and laugh together is actually the best part of life. So I think the Corona made me enjoy being together much more, eye to eye, skin to skin and not through a screen.