Week of April 7: COVID-19 info, facts & updates

[Pokeyonekenobie]

I find it interesting that religious leaders in some places haven't encouraged people to stay home.  My religious leaders told us weeks ago that they were cancelling all Sunday services and all weekly activities until further notice so that we wouldn't have large gatherings.  They told us to study our scriptures at home during the time we would have been at church and we have access to the church website that has inspirational videos and study helps for people who want it.  It just seems irresponsible not to encourage your congregation to stay home during this time.

[Koudoawaia]

1,346 cases in KY now. We jumped up by 204 cases since yesterday. We've had two days in a row now of more new cases than in previous days.

[Taffeta]

In the UK it has been reported by some churches that online services are attracting bigger congregations than traditional church ones.

But I didn't know it was an amendment right in the US.

[Koudoawaia]

Would go under the amendment that's about freedom of religion but there's that and there's endangering others by gathering in a pandemic. Online services are a wonderful alternative.  Does make things challenging for any elderly who do not have internet but they can read their Bibles at home at least. KY's governor has been reiterating in his speeches this week that even though it's gonna be tough on a lot of people with it being Easter week, there can't be any in person services...and of course not any family gatherings. I'm going to be missing the family gathering part myself but it is what it is and the virus can't be allowed to spiral out of control =/ Hopefully next Easter it'll all be back to normal.

[banditpony]

I'm pretty sure Ohio has the ability to do it-- as I am fairly many other states have and we are one of the few that haven't/won't.

It's just that the governor doesn't believe he has that right (and he said it today it's because of whatever amendment) . That's why he's pretty much shaming them in his press conferences that they shouldn't be endangering people. There's certainly church goers who believe it's a hoax, or that they are immune because they pray. (it's been in the news. u_u; It's.. sad.. )

It literally contradicts what's spiritually driving him to save people/lives, so it's kinda weird imo. oh well..

 

[Ponyfan]

Latest numbers were just released for my county. 214 cases, 47 recovered, 7 deaths.

Houses of worship can still technically hold services where I live but they have to be online, have people stay inside their cars,  or limit the number of people inside the building at a time.


Ponyfan

[Beth3346]

Yeah it seems pretty scary to have religious leaders putting their congregations in harm's way like this. Forcing people to choose between their own health and worship is just unfair. It seems that encouraging people to pray, read the Bible on their own or as a family would be a good option. Though I'm not very into organized religion so I'm a little biased.

I wouldn't think that governors would be able to close churches completely because of the 1st amendment. The United States has a complicated history when it comes to religious freedom and I would imagine most officials would want to avoid any heavy handed restrictions. No one wants to be viewed as anti religion unless they want to commit political suicide. At least in a state like Texas where I live.

[LadyMoondancer]

In Washington churches and other places of worship are not exempt from the stay-at-home order.  They can still hold services online of course.  In-person weddings and funerals are also cancelled.

I think the states do have quite a lot of leeway over places of worship when it comes to public health.  Like if a church had a belief that baptisms only count if the participant is doused in raw sewage, the Health Department would definitely say "Uhhh, NO, you can't do that."  Freedom of religion doesn't mean a church can physically endanger its parishoners.  So yeah, I do feel the areas where churches are still allowed to stay open are harkening to politics rather than law or science.  A lot of the south is very religious and Colorado has a libertarian streak.

[Taffeta]

The problem is that in very fervent religious communities, lax restrictions are asking for trouble in putting those people's lives at risk. Congregations of various faiths and faith groups around the world have provided the opportunity for things to spread and become a hotspot, and with Easter coming up and also Passover, and Ramadan/Eid approaching in the not too distant future as well as probably other things I've missed (pretty sure a Sikh parade here has already been cancelled but I forget the date)...it makes sense to just shut things down. Not doing so could easily lead to bigger outbreaks a week or two later in places currently doing a good job of keeping things low.

We also had an incident here with a funeral at a midlands crem. where there were 60+ guests (Govt advises 10). Funerals are not banned here at the moment but probably should be postponed given the circumstances...it's bad enough to lose someone close, worse if you can't say a proper goodbye. My great aunt had her funeral at that particular crem a year ago and it's not exactly a place you can carry out social distancing with any kind of ease. And the midlands is already a hotspot, so it created a lot of concern and got the police involved. Not how you want that kind of thing to take place.

UK update: Figures back to their steady level, not good, but not terrible, approaching a peek they believe is a week away. But the positives are that the number of hospital admissions is not as high as it has been and is flattening out, as are the ICU admissions. THe case numbers are the same as they were the end of last week before the weekend bottleneck made it all a bit weird. We are only testing people who need medical care and also NHS workers now though they are still working on increasing this. However people not being tested are those who are not unwell enough to need hospital or medical intervention.

Death figures are also really skewed by time lag. They're saying of today's number, only 140 actually came from yesterday and some came from the middle of march but have only just been registered as COVID.

I'm basically happier if the science people are happy about the fact things aren't getting scarily out of hand.

On another note - the UK is about at the same point as New York state, with a similar number of cases, deaths, and so on. Although the UK has about 3x the NY population, there's a sort of sense of solidarity between what's going on there and here, since we're probably going through the same thing at the same kind of time.

[tailrustedtealeaf]

All PA schools are officially closed for the remainder of this school year.
We've hit nearly 19000 cases. Our death toll is under 400. Most of the cases are still on the east side of the state.
Country-wide, I'm seeing that 10% of the workforce is now unemployed...
OH and I've heard that New Jersey is making mask wearing mandatory, so I'm sure that will extend to our state soon. We're still under voluntary.

[LadyMoondancer]

I ordered a cute cloth face mask off Etsy.

Health update for me:  I still have the sore throat and no other symptoms.  I've been wondering if I should try to get tested to see if it is in fact coronavirus (if there are even enough tests available now?  which I'm not sure of?) but I decided against it.  If I do have it, I would put other people at risk by leaving the house.  If I don't have it, I would be at risk of catching it by leaving the house.

Luckily it's very mild, just persistent.  And I have enough groceries to last me quite a while.

[Ponyfan]

243 cases, 9 deaths, 43 hospitalized  and 62 recovered in my county.  The news stated that recovered cases have to have 2 coronavirus tests come back as negative and not have symptoms for 3 days after the last negative case to be officially listed as recovered.

My parents had a telemedicine call with our dr today.  He told them they need to be sure to use face coverings and gloves when going out for food or essential services.

The largest grocery chain has put arrow stickers on floor of the aisles turning them in to one way lanes.

I'm afraid it will get worse here before it gets better. Some people are still not following the social distance guidelines.  A coworker said she went to the hardware store the other day and even though the store was enforcing social distancing outside, once they entered the store no one was staying 6 ft apart, several people were not wearing face coverings and many had children with them. I understand needing to bring your children with you if you're a single parent and they're too young to stay home alone but there are people that are bringing they're children to the store because they kids are bored. The golf courses are still open but people are not staying 6 ft away while playing. People are posting pics of them on social media in large groups.


Ponyfan   

[Beldarna]

As it looks now we have 9245 confirmed sick and 809 coinfirmed dead of Corona, 373 are confirmed cleared. Toiletpapers are back on the shelves but the yeast is still out which sucks as I finally have energy to bake bread.
A lot of bankruptcys and unemployements so far but I still have a work to go to *knocks on wood*. Lots of restaurants are now offering take out and home deliveries as a way to still make money. The peak is thought of coming in the middle of may or beginning of june up here where I live so I take it day by day.

We are not, however, suffering badly ad a redfaced clown in power has said. Rather the opposite. Stockholm, which had it worse, is leveling now.

[Ponyfan]

My cousin has been very sick for 2 weeks. Her local health department will not test her for coronavirus because she doesn't have a fever.


Ponyfan

[Taffeta]

Another day, another person finds a creative excuse for behaving like a moron.

https://www.shropshirestar.com/news/uk-news/2020/04/08/driver-caught-doing-130mph-claimed-he-was-trying-to-avoid-virus/