What it’s like Going to School in Dallas with Family in Switzerland

How the Coronavirus outbreak has affected my family abroad.

In the United States, we are dealing with the fears of the COVID-19 Pandemic as well as can be expected. In Dallas, Texas, the mayor of Dallas has been in daily contact with the citizens regarding his guidelines for a safe and effective opening up of the city, which parallels for the most part that of the Governor of Texas as well as the President of the US and his Coronavirus Task team. I can not imagine how my extended family who live in Switzerland are handling this crisis.

My father is originally from Switzerland and moved to the United States when he was 17-years-old as a foreign exchange student. My grandparents and my aunt still live in Switzerland. I try to visit them every year but due to the coronavirus outbreak, a visit may not be possible this year.

Switzerland is right next to Italy. With Italy being the third country in the world at the moment with the most coronavirus cases, I do not doubt that my family in Switzerland was scared and uncertain. From where my grandparents live, someone could drive to Italy in an hour.

Understandably, the virus spread quickly throughout Switzerland but not as extensively as it did in Italy. Italy is a much bigger country than Switzerland. As of today, Switzerland has 29,856 cases versus Italy’s 205,463 cases.

“The US, China, and Italy (in that order) have the highest number of coronavirus cases in the world,” Business Insider reported. “But an analysis of coronavirus cases per capita — the number of cases per million residents — in various countries reveals a different story. Switzerland, not China, tops the list of COVID-19 cases per capita, with 1,340 cases per million people. It’s followed by Spain, then Italy.”

For the past couple of weeks, my 93-year-old grandfather in Switzerland has been experiencing flu-like symptoms. My whole family has been stressed about the idea that he could get the coronavirus. With him being in his 90s and having an underlying health condition of high blood pressure, it only seemed highly likely that he could catch it.

Even the thought that seeing my grandfather for the last time over a FaceTime call has shaken me to the core. His chance of beating the virus is also much lower because of his age and underlying health condition. I truly feel for those who have already experienced losing a loved one during this pandemic especially if they never got to say a final goodbye.

“Older adults are at a significantly increased risk of severe disease following infection from COVID-19,” The World Health Organization said. “More than 50% of all deaths were people aged 80 years or older. We also know from reports that 8 out of 10 deaths are occurring in individuals with at least one underlying co-morbidity.”

Thankfully, my grandfather tested negative for the coronavirus. I do not know how my family would go through that with our extended family living thousands of miles away. With everything that has happened because of this pandemic, all we can have is hope and pray for those that are struggling far more than we are.