My Corona

Europe, Portugal included, is in terror of the Novel Corona virus.

Catherine sneezed at the ticket office in a Palacio yesterday and a man behind the desk got into crash position, hands over head and yelped some rough prayer.  The three other staff teased him about his over reaction.

 "He's afraid of Corona": I asked? Yes they all said,  laughing.

"I don't have!" Catherine replied loudly.

Upstairs Catherine sneezed and coughed again and a woman on the 6 person tour nearly jumped out of her skin and half jokingly wrapped her scarf around her face.

"We all have to be careful these days?! Yes?!" She said.

Anyone you know who descends from Europe lives the inheritance of one lucky beast.  One to two thirds of Europe's population (most likely on the higher percentage) died in what is now known as the "Black Death" therefore those here today are the descendents of the few who made it.

Not that Corona is anything like The Black Death.

However the news doesn't make people any calmer, running non-stop news feed on the issue. The usually more level headed BBC focuses in Tory fashion on the impact on business, which is beginning to get really irritating.

So far I haven't seen any outright xenophobia or racism, likely because the largest outbreak nearby is in Italy.

Almost all the tourist here currently are Brazilians and a few Spaniards and Brazil has only a few cases, Portugal and Spain none.

Nonetheless the country takes precautions. At our Porto hotel this afternoon, a latex gloved staff member wipes down all the elevator rails and buttons with disinfectant discussing with me whether "it" can be stopped or whether it's inevitable that Portugal will see the arrival of Corona.

So in the meantime it's wait and see while people nervously eye the shared cocktail peanuts.