Covid-19, Part XI - Rounding Third?

[M2]

The point would be that it doesn’t matter if it’s spreading if hospitals aren’t filling up and people aren’t dying from it anymore, which once we get the elderly and those with exacerbating conditions vaccinated, could very well end up happening.

True, though we're not particularly close to there yet. 65,000+ died from it last month. And the British variant of it can get off the leash real quick. The estimate I've heard is, if the new vaccine timeline bears out, we're about two months out from being clear of another spike. Best plan of action I've heard is take advantage of spring weather and do as much outdoors as possible as a bridge between here and there. Indoor with any kind of unmasking right now is asking for one last spike.

[RiverRat13]

What are we at right now?

Honestly I don’t like basing it off cases, covid is never going to go away at this point. I think it should definitely be by some metric of hospitalizations/deaths, maybe % of population vaccinated.

I agree with you but am happy to get any kind of metric.

Barring any setbacks, I would guess we'd hit the goal by mid-May.

[Wonderful Monds]

Agree, but it probably needs to be based on cases for another couple of months until vaccinations are a bit more prevalent. Or maybe just, ya know, stick with the existing guidelines (which aren't exactly keeping people from doing pretty much whatever they want anyway) until like May 1 and then base it off hospitalizations/deaths.

Sure, I wasn’t suggesting they should lift anything at the moment. May is the earliest I would expect to hit that point by either metric.

[Wonderful Monds]

So that is essentially 500 cases a day for 2 weeks.

Anyone know the last time we were that low?

[RiverRat13]

Anyone know the last time we were that low?

April. But there were far fewer tests being done.

Maybe June, too? Hard to read the graphs that go back that far.

[Kinsm]

So that is essentially 500 cases a day for 2 weeks.

Texas removed there restrictions and the city of Houston alone is still getting 1,000 cases a day.

[Kinsm]

Alabamians will have to continue wearing masks in public, but only for another five weeks.

The state's Republican governor announced Thursday the statewide mask mandate intended to help curb the spread of COVID-19 will be extended one last time, through April 9. The order was previously set to expire Monday.

Gov. Kay Ivey said at a news conference Thursday the extension could allow more residents to start getting vaccinated before the order is lifted altogether.

13% of Alabama's 4.9 million people have received the first dose of a vaccine, according to the AP. The Governor is hoping to triple that figure over the next month.

[JaxRed]

Covid sniffing dogs

https://www.wxii12.com/article/rosse...tion/35730234#

[Todd Gack]

Texas removed there restrictions and the city of Houston alone is still getting 1,000 cases a day.

Are Houston businesses still allowed to mandate masks at their place?

[Sea Ray]

Are Houston businesses still allowed to mandate masks at their place?

Yes, but there's no criminal penalty for not doing so. In other words, they can refuse you entry but that's about it. Kroger has said that they're still going to require masks in their Texas stores

[Sea Ray]

I think pressure will build on states like ours to lift restrictions before May. Connecticut isn't lifting masks yet but they are lifting quite a bit:

Attachment 17021

https://twitter.com/Bogs4NY/status/1...5Es1_&ref_url=

Considering that (the politics of) Connecticut is a far cry from Texas, this is a significant

[BuckeyeRed27]

Anyone know the last time we were that low?

Ohio hasn't been that low since last June and that was likely due to all the testing issues that were going on at that point. Before numbers spiked here around late October, Ohio was in the 800-1200 range basically every day.

[Boston Red]

We got the excellent news that our kids' grade school (it's a K-8 Catholic school) currently has 0 Covid positives and 0 kids on quarantine for close contacts. That's for faculty, staff and students (a total of 560 people). They've been in school in person full time for the whole school year already, but my daughter's high school has been on the hybrid model (half days in class in person 4 days a week and the rest online). The high school just announced that after spring break they're bringing everyone back together in person for full days 4 days a week. Faculty and staff at both schools were offered the vaccine (first shot) last weekend.

We actually preferred the hybrid schedule for my daughter due to her gymnastics schedule, but it's nice to see the creep back towards normal.

[Sea Ray]

We got the excellent news that our kids' grade school (it's a K-8 Catholic school) currently has 0 Covid positives and 0 kids on quarantine for close contacts. That's for faculty, staff and students (a total of 560 people). They've been in school in person full time for the whole school year already, but my daughter's high school has been on the hybrid model (half days in class in person 4 days a week and the rest online). The high school just announced that after spring break they're bringing everyone back together in person for full days 4 days a week. Faculty and staff at both schools were offered the vaccine (first shot) last weekend.

We actually preferred the hybrid schedule for my daughter due to her gymnastics schedule, but it's nice to see the creep back towards normal.

That is good news but it's long past time. You should be back full time, 5 days a week. Schools in my area are back fulltime and have been for months. We saw early in research done in China and Europe that schools are not a big spreader. Kids are not very contagious and this virus doesn't float vertically. The damage done to our kids by keeping them out of school is tremendous. This will be seen as a huge misstep when we look back at this years from now

[Sea Ray]

Ohio hasn't been that low since last June and that was likely due to all the testing issues that were going on at that point. Before numbers spiked here around late October, Ohio was in the 800-1200 range basically every day.

I'll be very surprised if DeWine can hold off that long, 'cause as you say, 500 is a very low number. There will be a lot of pressure put on him to drop the mask mandate before that.