Retirees deal with fear and disrupted routines during Covid-19 pandemic

A resident of The Villages, a retirement community, gets tested for the coronavirus with a nasal swab at a drive-through site that accommodates golf carts at the local polo club. Photos: TNS

Gone are the weekly bingo games. Gone too are the daily shuttles around the golf course and the Friday bus trips to the mall. A vast game room, typically full of bridge players, is locked up.

“Nothing, ” said Carol Friedman, a 70-year-old resident of Wynmoor, a South Florida retirement community of 9,000 residents in the United States. “Can’t do nothing now. Everyone just sits here bored.