The Star will regularly check in with Coun. Josh Matlow, who is self-isolating at home after a potential exposure to COVID-19, to see how he’s faring and what he’s learning about the fight to contain the outbreak.

Coun. Josh Matlow has learned many important things about living alone in his basement these past eight days.

And many more, he said, about living outside it, which he looks forward to doing again.

The first is somewhat practical — that it’s important to follow some semblance of a routine. For him that’s meant showering, sometimes changing into jeans and a button-down shirt and going about his work day, which these days has been exclusively by phone and email since he went into self isolation on March 9.

“At first I’d sort of stay in sweatpants and the shirt that I was wearing. And then I just made a decision: I’ve got to shower in the morning, get dressed — look and feel like the person I want to be,” he said by phone on Tuesday. “It makes a difference. You feel like you’re ready to just jump into life — even if your jump can’t go very far.”

Matlow was the first Toronto official to be faced with a life separate from others — two weeks in self isolation — after he came into contact with a man who was later confirmed to have COVID-19.

He’s joined now by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, whose wife tested positive; Mayor John Tory, who recently travelled to London, England; a Toronto Star reporter returning from Blue Jays spring training; and many others who are being asked to do the same thing as a precaution.

Matlow’s advice to those finding themselves in his shoes: “Don’t just stay in your pyjamas. Your life doesn’t pause.”

The councillor continued to have no symptoms on Tuesday and was in good spirits.

He said it’s been frustrating to not be able to speak to people he misses in person — his father, sister and staff — and the important thing he’s learned in isolation that he’ll carry with him above ground is about gratitude.

“To appreciate the people in my life and to just, without exception, act from a place of kindness.”

He talked to the Star on Tuesday between mouthfuls of a sandwich left at the top of the stairs by his wife Melissa — his regular way of getting meals while staying physically apart from his family at all times.

He’s been playing guitar, having daily dance parties with his daughter Molly (her at the top of the basement stairs, him at the bottom) and watched a movie (the Elton John biopic “Rocketman”).

He continues to pace a lot to get his steps in — more than 12,000 on Monday — and dreams of going for a long walk in an outdoor, secluded place with Melissa soon. He typically plans a solo trip each year to hike alone in the mountains, but knows he won’t be going this year and wants to spend more time with his family anyway.

When it comes to work, a lot of the meetings and discussions he’s been having are around the newly declared state of emergency in Ontario, he said, but he’s also getting emails about all kinds of other issues.

“If you saw my inbox, you’d be amazed,” Matlow said. “It’s humanity at its best, it’s humanity at its worst.”

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Some things never change.

Matlow’s isolation period ends March 20.