Surge Question

[Disneefun]

No "warnings" here either about Christmas. Instead we're on a full prohibition of admitting anyone to our homes other than permanent residents for any reason other than medical necessity. This is enforceable by law and was imposed mid-November to last until January 5 at the earliest. Our hospitalizations and fatalities are on a steady, upward rise and the volumes are now exponentially higher than they were at the peak in April.

Serious question: What do you all do if the plumbing breaks, or the wiring fritzes out, or you need to hire a professional for an urgent home repair? Is that allowed, or do you just have to deal with it?

 

[mjkacmom]

You might be too late with the haircut. At least if you’re in NY State. I’m in Western NY. Our salons & barber shops had to close when we became an orange zone.

Still open in NJ, lots here love their hair and nail salons! So many women I know were making appointments as soon as they opened. I’m guessing they’ll be closing down shortly.

 

[DopeyDame]

A friend of mine works for Orlando Health it’s the largest group of hospitals in Central Florida. Yesterday there were 151 people with Covid in all of their hospitals.
Orlando Health started tracking in patient in June and the numbers were in the 40’s.
There was a high of 400+ in July.
It’s been falling since then and was in the 90’s last month (they also added another hospital last month).
There are 1.3 million people living in Central Florida.

This is purely anecdotal, obviously, but I truly believe some of the geographic shifting is due to weather. In the summer and early fall, when Florida was surging, it was really hot there so more people were inside in the air conditioning. On the other hand, people in the north were outside. Now, people in Florida are more likely to be doing outdoor activities, while other parts of the country are moving inside with cold weather.
I'm not really saying that the virus itself cares about the weather, but that human behavior changes to be inside or outdoors more often, and we know outdoors is safer.

 

[cobright]

I guess maybe they are now focused on the vaccine?

What's at the top of most news reels is which cities ICUs are full or about to be full.
Seeing reports of record breaking 'daily new case' and 'daily new deaths'
Seeing scientific journals and health related news begging people to celebrate the holidays responsibly.
And now, growing concerns that the normal case load of the influenza season is beginning to coalesce with the pandemic numbers.

I have not heard the warnings about gathering for Christmas like I was hearing about Thanksgiving.

I have heard this from a few people and I wonder if some of it is owed to how much news we were consuming leading up to the election and the weeks following it. The media is definitely sounding the alarms as hard now as before (harder really) but maybe we just heard more of it before when we were glued to the news about the election. It's a theory anyway.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

When I consider everything I can't help but feel like by next summer the bulk of this will be behind us.

While there will be the vaccine in use by then, I don't think we'll have the bulk of it behind us by then. But we'll see some improvement. There's obviously going to be a long time line getting the amount of vaccine necessary, and, with the 3-4 delay between doses, and the wait time after the second dose before any sort of immunity is developed, I think the majority of people won't be there until well into spring/summer.

 

[Colleen27]

I don't watch a lot of news, but I have noticed that there's a shift in focus again in the local outlets I read - from cases and hospitalizations to deaths - but that seems to happen any time case counts start trending downward rather than up. And every time a dire prediction falls flat, which it appears to have done re: Thanksgiving in my state.

But I also think a lot of the pre-Thanksgiving coverage was driven by daily or near-daily press conferences trying to convince people not to gather for the holiday, rather than by any routine data or metrics, so I figure we'll be back to those stories again next week when the "cancel Christmas" press conferences start in earnest.

 

[mjkacmom]

Serious question: What do you all do if the plumbing breaks, or the wiring fritzes out, or you need to hire a professional for an urgent home repair? Is that allowed, or do you just have to deal with it?

We’ve had a boiler fixed, and a washing machine and refrigerator replaced.

 

[Disneefun]

We’ve had a boiler fixed, and a washing machine and refrigerator replaced.

Thanks, but I was asking the poster who posted that they aren't allowed to have anyone in their home except for medical necessity. I think that person is in Canada. Here in the US, repairs would be considered essential, but I wonder what they're supposed to do up there.

 

[ronandannette]

Serious question: What do you all do if the plumbing breaks, or the wiring fritzes out, or you need to hire a professional for an urgent home repair? Is that allowed, or do you just have to deal with it?

Actually yes - on an emergency basis only. Residential construction and home repairs are essential services here. I work in that industry and we have extremely strict limitations right now on what we can attend in someone's home for and what we can't. Unfortunately it's not the customer's perception of what is urgent to them that carries the day.

 

[StitchesGr8Fan]

While there will be the vaccine in use by then, I don't think we'll have the bulk of it behind us by then. But we'll see some improvement. There's obviously going to be a long time line getting the amount of vaccine necessary, and, with the 3-4 delay between doses, and the wait time after the second dose before any sort of immunity is developed, I think the majority of people won't be there until well into spring/summer.

They are saying the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine is 50% effective, which will have a small impact on the spread. It’s not like there is no immunity at all until after the second dose.

 

[Weedy]

This is purely anecdotal, obviously, but I truly believe some of the geographic shifting is due to weather. In the summer and early fall, when Florida was surging, it was really hot there so more people were inside in the air conditioning. On the other hand, people in the north were outside. Now, people in Florida are more likely to be doing outdoor activities, while other parts of the country are moving inside with cold weather.
I'm not really saying that the virus itself cares about the weather, but that human behavior changes to be inside or outdoors more often, and we know outdoors is safer.

The numbers were at a all time high in July.
Can’t get much hotter than Florida in July

 

[kymom99]

Kentucky has seen its highest ever daily cases but positivity rate has gone down a little bit. I’ve heard we may have plateaued. Even though the cases are high they are not surging. Before thanksgiving we closed indoor dining and schools and they released guidelines for thanksgiving gatherings. People fussed about it quite vocally but a lot that I know followed the recommendations.
I saw on the news tonight that Indiana’s governor said they are on fire.

 

[low-key]

I think more people would be willing to do what they say, if what they said before would hold true " social distancing, mask, almost every state has these, and cases or rising, they claim its cause a few people dont wear there mask right, while the population is beginning to they are full of doodoo

 

[Weedy]

I do feel the number of deaths are infected or not being tracked correctly. A man from my church died this week. He was 100 years old. He had Covid. So was his death from age or covid? I’m sure he will be counted as a covid death.
What would be good to know is how many people typically die in a state last year compared to now.

 

[ShirikiUtundu]

I do feel the number of deaths are infected or not being tracked correctly. A man from my church died this week. He was 100 years old. He had Covid. So was his death from age or covid? I’m sure he will be counted as a covid death.

Seriously? Yeah he died from Covid complications. Being 100 made that more likely. Do you not realize that there's no such thing as "dying from old age" ???

What would be good to know is how many people typically die in a state last year compared to now.

You can easily find that on the internet for whichever state you wish.

 

[SaintsManiac]

Surge here is real.

 

[robinb]

3,214 people died from Covid yesterday.

So far (fingers crossed, knock wood), Illinois is actually decreasing in both positivity rate and hospitalizations since before Thanksgiving. We've also been on a modified shutdown too.

Hopefully it keeps up.

I know that in Wisconsin testing is down. I wonder if Illinois is the same. I also wonder if things are getting better or if people are simply not getting tested.

 

[Heather07438]

I do feel the number of deaths are infected or not being tracked correctly. A man from my church died this week. He was 100 years old. He had Covid. So was his death from age or covid? I’m sure he will be counted as a covid death.
What would be good to know is how many people typically die in a state last year compared to now.

I was going to link to the Excess Deaths page on the CDC site but for some reason the site stopped existing?

www.cdc.gov

 

[FQLover]

Yes, our Indiana governor today said that our state is "on fire." He reported that every one of the 92 counties are now in the "red zone."

 

[PrincessShmoo]

I was going to link to the Excess Deaths page on the CDC site but for some reason the site stopped existing?

www.cdc.gov

I found this page on the link you provided:
https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#cases_totalcases