Coronavirus COVID-19 - Global Health Pandemic #69

[Bravo]

61,000 cases and over 800 dead today so far.

Heartbreaking

 

[CSIDreamer]

Hope this helps. The page references both Family Dollar and Dollar Tree.
https://www.familydollar.com/coronavirus-response

1. What is the Company’s face mask policy?
   In accordance with guidelines from the CDC, we are requiring all associates, customers and vendors to wear cloth face coverings when inside our stores. The Company is providing face masks to associates as supplies become available.

Thank you!

 

[Reasonable & Just]

The two tourists in the article were from NY and were holidaying in Florida so I was asking if they will have to quarantine on their return to Brooklyn, for 14 days. Florida is on the NY quarantine list but I don't know if that applies to returning residents. I mean it should do, to be effective.

Yes, indeed, it does apply to us. It would be weird if it didn't. It had been my plan to do so, and to get tested (before I canceled my plans).

 

[CharlestonGal]

Bullock orders statewide mask use

Gov. Steve Bullock on Wednesday issued a statewide order requiring the use of a face covering in some settings to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus.

While saying he'd hoped people would acknowledge the science that masks can prevent the spread of the virus, not enough are taking the precaution.

"Unfortunately it has become clear we need to do more, and that asking folks to do the right thing just isn't always going to be enough," Bullock said in a press conference Wednesday.

Businesses must post signs that masks are required for those ages 5 and up, and it applies to employees and customers.

 

[COSCitizen]

Heartbreaking

At this rate, we will blow right past 1000 deaths a day. MOO

 

[pocketaccent]

We have a little good news this morning. Contact tracers in Sydney have tracked down Case Zero. This is the Victoria person who took the virus to Sydney. Now there is some hope of containment and suppression of the virus outbreak there.

The person is a transport worker who was travelling through Sydney. In his stop at the pub he was the cause of infection in 34 people.

(No link ... watching morning TV news)

In other news, Victoria police have checked over 85,000 cars who have left Melbourne for other parts of Victoria for 'essential' reasons. Over 500 fines have been issued to people and businesses who have been caught doing the wrong thing. The Victorian Premier is now considering an even tighter lockdown. Things are not yet improving there.

Your country will win. I have no doubt. What I see is that Aussies are offensive and proactive in the fight against this virus, while the US is only being defensive at best and keeps retreating in defeat.

I feel hopeless. I started to feel this hopelessness a few days ago. It is the worst feeling. I'd rather feel anger or hatred even.

 

[WichitaFalls]

HISD Will Delay Opening Until After Labor Day, Go Virtual To Start The New School Year
The Houston Independent School District will delay the start of its school year until after Labor Day and begin classes with virtual instruction until at least October, the interim superintendent announced Wednesday.
More at link . . . HISD Will Delay Opening Until After Labor Day, Go Virtual To Start The New School Year | Houston Public Media

 

[CharlestonGal]

Countries currently open without restriction to US citizens:

• Albania
• Dominican Republic
• Kosovo
• Maldives
• Mexico
• North Macedonia
• Serbia
• Tunisia
• Turkey

The handful of countries still welcoming US tourists

 

[10ofRods]

The two tourists in the article were from NY and were holidaying in Florida so I was asking if they will have to quarantine on their return to Brooklyn, for 14 days. Florida is on the NY quarantine list but I don't know if that applies to returning residents. I mean it should do, to be effective.

It's hard to follow when you simply said "they" and it wasn't clear who you were referring to.

Yes, they will have to quarantine according to NY's rules. Yes, it does apply to returning residents. In fact, I'd think it would be easier to nab the returnees and make sure they obeyed compared to others.

Residents cannot be barred from entering their own buildings (apparently that's the only place they can go).

 

[Midgie2]

Your country will win. I have no doubt. What I see is that Aussies are offensive and proactive in the fight against this virus, while the US is only being defensive at best and keeps retreating in defeat.

I feel hopeless. I started to feel this hopelessness a few days ago. It is the worst feeling. I'd rather feel anger or hatred even.

Please don’t lose hope! When I feel down I think about all the brilliant scientists around the world working tirelessly to come up with a vaccine (and therapeutics).
We will get through this!

 

[10ofRods]

Countries currently open without restriction to US citizens:

• Albania
• Dominican Republic
• Kosovo
• Maldives
• Mexico
• North Macedonia
• Serbia
• Tunisia
• Turkey

The handful of countries still welcoming US tourists

I've always wanted to go to Tunisia (but hard to get a direct flight). My DH says absolutely not. I understand why. Turkey...well, a few years ago yes, not right now. Dominican Republic has too much CoVid for my liking. So does Mexico.

No direct flights to Albania that I can find.

Sigh. The rest are not places on my main list of places I want to go.

 

[HongKongPhooey]

I've always wanted to go to Tunisia (but hard to get a direct flight). My DH says absolutely not. I understand why. Turkey...well, a few years ago yes, not right now. Dominican Republic has too much CoVid for my liking. So does Mexico.

No direct flights to Albania that I can find.

Sigh. The rest are not places on my main list of places I want to go.

Maldives are v popular with Brits who love diving and snorkelling. I hope to get there before they are submerged. I think tho we are all going to be better off with our "staycations" for the time being. And for me that means my back garden.

 

[zecats]

I've always wanted to go to Tunisia (but hard to get a direct flight). My DH says absolutely not. I understand why. Turkey...well, a few years ago yes, not right now. Dominican Republic has too much CoVid for my liking. So does Mexico.

No direct flights to Albania that I can find.

Sigh. The rest are not places on my main list of places I want to go.

Right now, I don't even want to go to Delaware or Pennsylvania, which are both directly across the Delaware River from us.

 

[pocketaccent]

Please don’t lose hope! When I feel down I think about all the brilliant scientists around the world working tirelessly to come up with a vaccine (and therapeutics).
We will get through this!

Thank you. When I feel hopeless, I try to do just one positive thing per day. Today I made one really pretty cloth mask using a silk scarf I no longer wear plus cotton fabric for inside.

Ugh, I think we will really hit 100,000 new cases daily, soon, as Dr. Fauci mentioned. This is too much suffering for too many people.

 

[SouthAussie]

Your country will win. I have no doubt. What I see is that Aussies are offensive and proactive in the fight against this virus, while the US is only being defensive at best and keeps retreating in defeat.

I feel hopeless. I started to feel this hopelessness a few days ago. It is the worst feeling. I'd rather feel anger or hatred even.

Hope springs eternal. If you want, we will carry your hope for you ... until you are ready to pick it up again.

Stay right here. Many of us are hopeful for all of the US.

 

[10ofRods]

We're going to make 700 a day easy. I don't think anyone disputes that at this point. I think that's part of what we are supposed to just "learn to live with". jmo

Well, someone did just dispute it. But I agree - we are supposed to learn to live with it. And it's likely going to be 1000 a day in another week.

We don't have the "common sense" (aka Sweden effect) where 90% of people voluntarily modify their behavior dramatically.

Perhaps you prefer this link. If not google is your friend.
Health secretary Azar wrongly claims 'health-care workers don’t get infected' in argument for reopening schools

Azar's statement is practically criminal negligence for someone in his office. Unbelievable. He can't possibly believe that, himself. He can't possibly be that stupid, can he?

SO many healthcare workers infected (and dead), worldwide. We should be keeping our own national tally (it's way up in the hundreds). Of the 60% who didn't die in nursing homes, healthcare workers are a huge fraction.

Are you in California? I thought you had opened?

We never shut down in the sense that Germany or Canada or South Korea or France did. We have an international airport on the "do not shut down" list from the federal government. So there goes that part.

Secondly, we had a very broad notion of what was "essential work" and no one enforced it except at the county level (so, that means, 75% of California had all manner of workers going to and fro - and you can see on any map that if a town was on an interstate, they've got higher rates of CoVid, as so much is transported through CA - including CoVid).

Thirdly, we did reopen but have now gone back to...well, I just don't know.

I know that high risk indoor activities are banned again. But there are public school summer programs, many summer camps, 1000's of kids in daycare, campgrounds are mostly open (all closed for a while - except, really, they didn't...)

Frankly, it's each person for themselves here in California. I've stopped paying as close attention to what I can and can't do in theory - I just stay home. Many people are doing the same. Most people I see are wearing masks, finally (that just happened within the last 10 days - statewide mandate...at least that's when I think it happened). But many people are not wearing them and we have no enforcement.

NY has enforcement. Many states have fines (I think we have a fine, but no corps of policers to issue tickets).

The border to Mexico is open for all essential travel (which means anything involving jobs or trade or visiting family - self-declaration, as I understand it).

And we just shut down a bunch of stuff yesterday - so I guess back to Stage 1? But not the same Stage 1 as before? Maybe someone else can explain.

 

[WichitaFalls]

Hope springs eternal. If you want, we will carry your hope for you ... until you are ready to pick it up again.

Stay right here. Many of us are hopeful for all of the US.

Your post is the sweetest thing I've read today! Thank you.

 

[SouthAussie]

Only a handful of states have a quarantine rule, and even fewer are able to enforce it at all. New York is serious about it, NJ is getting a handle on it, others can mention how their states are doing. However, even in those states, it's only travelers from certain other states that have to quarantine.

But Florida, Texas, California and Arizona have no quarantines for incoming travelers from the US. And both have a very large problem and California in particular has tons of people traveling in and out.

Speaking of which, the states whose citizens traveled to and from South Dakota are, in fact, seeing a rise in CoVid cases, particularly Montana and Wyoming. All three states (SD, MT, WY) had virtually no CoVid cases before July 1. Then the tourists went to SD, then they went home. MT and WY have a large problem.

No quarantines necessary in any of those three states.

Idaho has the worst trend...they're getting tourists from all directions - but they are also traveling, themselves. They had a little pause in the last week of June, but are now apparently going to go exponential (or have already done s0).

Sadly, Montana (one of my favorite states) now has the highest R-naught rate in the nation. WY, ID and ND aren't far behind.

SD isn't doing too badly, probably because Keystone only has 350 people and the area is isolated from the rest of the state. Shopkeepers and restaurant workers in Keystone were wearing masks, as shown on the live feed in the most crowded part of town.

This whole issue of travel is huge. One city near me just hosted a large event that was held outdoors (but with tons of people breathing in each others' faces). Nearly the entire group was from out of town and many from out of state. So...the vectors will be hard to research, there will be no contact tracing and the numbers resulting from that event will not show up as a.blip on this city's/county's CV rates. They want tourism.

I agree, this unrestricted travel is the biggest issue. Closely followed by the issue of not wearing masks.

It is hard to believe that we are now in mid-July and people are still debating and/or stubbornly refusing the use of personal protection.

 

[10ofRods]

Right now, I don't even want to go to Delaware or Pennsylvania, which are both directly across the Delaware River from us.

Yep, yep. We don't go anywhere. The anti-mask thing is big in SoCal. Tensions are high. People going to get take-out are edgy and half are mad at the other half (for not wearing masks or for wearing masks). Police are either spread thin or otherwise invisible. The beaches, when they close, still have plenty of people. My small hometown, where I have friends, has had one of the bigger increases in CoVid in SoCal. Inyo County has closed all its campgrounds (they were at zero cases until last week and they rightfully freaked out when they had their first death). If we look just at Madera County (gateway to Yosemite), it's so sad. They don't even have really good hospitals close by.

L.A. now has the highest number of hospitalizations ever and California has shattered its previous record for new cases today.

Where could I even go? Well, some people are going anyway!

I wonder what we'll do next week when all ICU beds are taken throughout SoCal.

 

[JerseyGirl]

Most of us here have been shut down since March 10-15. Some people sheltered before that. Some places have no shutdowns at all in the US, but that doesn't mean people aren't using common sense to keep themselves safe - they surely are.

So, for many of us, it's 4 months - but as you can see, things are getting worse, not better. Because aside from NY/NJ and adjacent states, no one really shut down.

My office shut down March 15 and opened with half staff on alternate work days starting June 15. The larger companies around me such as Prudential, PSEG and many other offices are slowly returning next month or off for the entire summer. State office workers are also working from home indefinitely with no return date.

After 4 months, the NY/NJ area is still pretty much shut down, but with mandatory mask wearing anytime outside the home.