NEW YORK (Reuters) – It’s more than 10 months until Christmas, but as the global coronavirus pandemic takes hold in the United States, Margaret Haskell put out a call on her community Facebook group in New Jersey for people to hang their outdoor holiday lights back up.
Marisa Macner Migdal, 35, leads her daughters Cecelia, 2, and Genevieve, 5, on a rainbow hunt as part of the Quarantine Rainbow Project in Brooklyn, New York, March 18, 2020. Picture taken March 18, 2020. REUTERS/Lauren Young
“We are all finding new ways to virtually connect but many of us can’t shake the feeling of isolation and loneliness,” Haskell, 37, from South Orange, told Reuters. “My thought was that this would be a way to let each other know that we are still here, that life is still going on inside our houses.”
More than 12,500 people across the United States have been diagnosed with the COVID-19 illness and over 200 have died, with Washington state and New York worst hit so far.
Americans are being told to stay home and practise social distancing in a bid to slow the spread of the virus, so people are coming up with creative ways to cope with isolation, lift each others spirits, and get to know their neighbors.
Viral videos of people in Italy and Spain singing or taking part in mass exercise classes from their balconies during coronavirus lockdowns have provided inspiration.
Residents of a neighborhood of Jersey City, New Jersey, have started coming out at 6 p.m. to play whatever instruments