The MLP Arena
Pony Talk => Off Topic => Topic started by: Ponyfan on October 25, 2020, 03:37:39 PM
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We haven’t had a new coronavirus thread for a while. The current situation where I live is 17,478 cases, 176 deaths.
My city has reached 7 consecutive days of covid hospitalizations over 15% of total hospital capacity. Tomorrow rollback shutdown announcements are expected. Restaurants and most likely other businesses will go back to 50% occupancy and bars will close again.
The biggest university in town has announced they will only have online classes after Thanksgiving break until the end of the semester and spring break will only be one day to try to prevent students from going home for it.
Ponyfan
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New York City resident reporting in. Restaurants are at 25% capacity but it's purely optional and up to businesses whether or not to do indoor dining. Certain areas have had spikes in cases and areas have been deemed red or orange zones with tighter restrictions. Colleges have been online only since the beginning of September.
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UK is doing things by country and by region.
In England, much of the North is under tier 3 which means bars etc closing and some stringent limits on hanging out together.
Where I am is currently the lowest tier where it's just social distancing, wear masks, 10pm curfew for bars which I don't care about. But because we're high risk, honestly, the way we are continuing right now is more strict than even in Tier 3.
Scotland has its own tier system introduced. Wales are doing a 17 day circuitbreak where everything nonessential is shut down. a Welsh Tesco store got in trouble today for deciding sanitary products were not essential. Can only imagine that decision was made by a man...
We're between Tier 2 Birmingham and Circuit Break Wales, so who knows where things are going to go from here. Our cases are up but our hospitals are coping at present and still running normal services.
Frankly I think if we'd all done a 2 week circuit break a month ago we'd all be better off. Unfortunately it seems like there are a bunch of people in this country who can't cope with not going to a pub for 2 weeks and they like to whine about it a whole lot.
Zero tolerance for people complaining about any level of lockdown over here if they haven't had to endure actual hardship or difficulty such as losing their business/income/housing/a relative or having to shield.
Most of the people whining the loudest seem to be people who went on holiday in the summer, like to go to restaurants and who don't think it's important to get a test or self isolate if they are waiting for a test result.
It would be nice if the media would stop flashing the hardship of the people who can't go out on a weekend and started reminding people what the real cost and reason for this is. Like we don't already have enough conspiracy nuts. Some of whom have died from COVID already.
...So on the good news, the reports are that Oxford's vaccine is producing immune responses in all age groups. There are rumours health workers may be vaccinated before Christmas if the third stage of trials reports positively. We'll see.
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We're almost at 200,000 cases in the state of PA. It barely feels like there's even a pandemic anymore, no one seems to be taking distancing seriously. Our case increase is similar to what it was in April. Some local schools have hybrid classes going on, it's been a few weeks and it seems like there hasn't been much incident with them.
I got my flu shot about two weeks ago, I'm sure a lot of people are going to skip it this year because flu doesn't tend to be at the forefront of our minds. I am curious how the holidays and eventual temperature drops will go.
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Ohio hit 200,000 today. We are trending up with cases + hospitalizations. My local county gives out very detailed data, so I'm grateful for that.
I'm just worried that people will not dial back their halloween plans and if that will have a negative impact on my area since we aren't doing that great lately... There are big consequences if hospitals get overloaded. We'll see, I guess. Maybe I worry too much.
I hope everyone in a current hot spot is staying as safe as possible. :(
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Up here in The Netherlands were are in partial lockdown.
Which means in short that restaurants & cafes are closed (take out only), after 8 every shop has to be closed but only supermarkets are allowed to stay open. And they are not allowed to sell alcohol after 8. Wear facial masks in shops.
And stay at home as much as possible.
Later this week it will be more clear if it helped or if we are going in real lockdown which is the next step.
Even though all the rules there are still people who feel it's not for them. So a lot of illegal parties going on and busy streets and parks.
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Florida remains a mess, surprise. 782,013 cases, 48,281 hospitalizations and 16,449 deaths. On October 5th alone, nearly 60 people died.
Infection rate is staying the same but for a while the death toll was going down steadily. The Governor opened the state to Phase 3 and deaths started climbing again. Phase 3 is basically act as if everything is back to pre-covid unless you don't want to, as a business. Kids are back in school and the counties are fighting the parents on a mask mandate. Parents claim their precious can't breathe in a mask all day and the county says too bad, so it's this whole thing.
I haven't been out much at all. Delivery services are still contactless and the people wear masks. The only store I've been in was Wal-Mart and they no longer require a mask, they took up the 6ft and one way shopping stickers. Most people were still wearing masks (I mean, it should be habit by this point, no?) but there were a few that didn't have them. I don't go anywhere without mine, and won't be for a loooong time. Florida is still a hot spot. Travel is NOT restricted anymore. The theme parks are open, most running a Halloween special. So it's like, a cat telling the mouse the trap is totally a carnival ride. And the trap is the cats mouth.
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Governor Herbert just sent out a mass text to everyone in Utah saying that hospitalizations and case growth due to Covid isn't sustainable and at 9:30 he'll be issuing a new state of emergency, a statewide mask mandate, restrictions on social gatherings and expanded testing.
I thought there was already a mask mandate and gatherings were limited to 10 or fewer people. I guess we'll see what he adds in another 15 minutes or so.
Post Merge: November 08, 2020, 10:24:37 PM
Okay, so we now have 4 "new" mandates.
1) Masks are required (which they already were) in public places and businesses have to have signs up about it (which they already do) or they can be fined. Because apparently we haven't noticed this whole Covid thing for the last 8 months or so.
2) No casual social gatherings with anyone outside our immediate households for 2 weeks. So if I have a formal event it's okay? Break out the black ties and ball gowns...
3) 2-week postponing of all sports and after school activities with the exception of high school playoff and championship games and intercollegiate sports. (Football good, spelling bee bad...)
4) Expansion of testing operations. Weekly testing for university students and will expand to include high school students who participate in extracurricular activities, people in the workforce under 35 and high school teachers. So since I'm not under 35 I don't have to be tested every week but my younger co-workers do. Seems legit.
If you read the actual executive order, I can host an event if I have the mask mandate/6-foot distancing rules posted even though we're not supposed to have social gatherings. I cannot see my brother if he is not in my immediate household but I can go to a football game and be surrounded by a bunch of people I don't know. Because that makes sense.
Is it sad that the mandate actually says that it's not required to wear a mask while eating, sleeping, or swimming?
The video message
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=533&v=agZElZxXHag&feature=emb_logo
The actual mandate
https://coronavirus-download.utah.gov/Governor/EO-2020-73-temporary-statewide-covid-19-restrictions.pdf
I just find the whole "now we're freaking out" thing stupid. This is stuff that has been happening for months now and if people haven't been doing it already, they aren't going to start now. They've declared states of emergency before now. They've had mask mandates before now. They've said no social gatherings before now. They've said that we should test people before now.
I'll keep doing what I'm supposed to but I don't have any delusions about the people around me doing what they should. If everyone was already doing these things, they wouldn't have to declare a state of emergency and tell everyone this again.
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New York reporting in! Well Governor Cuomo announced that all restaurants and bars will have to close at 10pm EST and only do takeout after that starting tomorrow. On a closer to home note, idiot customers at my job have been trying to be sneaky and take their masks off when employees are not looking, but we're not stupid and tell them to put the mask back on. And it's followed by some variant of "BUt I NeED tO BrEAthe!!" >_<
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Our local council is getting really specific about its information.
Today they released intel ward by ward about numbers.
And our ward, apparently, is the ward with the fewest cases at present.
Some tiny light in a dark tunnel maybe?
Week 1 in lockdown. Genuinely hoping it brings the numbers down.
Flicked across CNN today and saw them do a completely inaccurate report on COVID in the UK. Starting with the fact they recorded that the UK has a national lockdown, which it doesn't. England has a national lockdown. Scotland has tier restrictions. Northern Ireland has an entirely separate lockdown which began earlier than England's did. And Wales just came out of a 2 week firebreak with restrictions in place.
I'd let them off but the person reporting was actually IN the UK.
Plus our case numbers are doubling every 24 days, which is down from every 2 weeks as was reported a few weeks ago. The number of projected cases in the UK day by day is not rising exponentially although they're fairly sure the national figures are missing a good bunch (I get this data NOT from government sources but from scientific data from research institutions doing studies on the pandemic).
The down side to this is that it is very regional. The North West's numbers seem to be coming down. The Midlands' numbers are not just yet. But the problem is the media are so wedded to the idea of the north/south divide that I am certain they won't give the same attention to the region.
Mass testing is being rolled out across cities, starting in Liverpool in the last week and soon moving to other areas as well. Not our borough yet but some of the hotspots in the region are going to get it.
And some hospitals in the UK are having to cancel elective procedures because of COVID cases. But our health trust is not one of those as yet.
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Well the US had 150,000 new cases today. we just hit the record of 100,000 new cases a few days ago. so that doesn't make me feel good about our prospects for the holiday season. i'm not even sure if the old covid task force is still a thing. our vp who is the head of the task force is vacationing in Florida. I don't think we'll get more stimulus before the end of the year. So no increased unemployment benefits or help for states and cities who missed a lot of tax revenue. Happy Holidays everyone :(
President elect Biden has already named his task force so hopefully we'll get a more coherent response after Jan 20. Too late for the holidays though.
We're still essentially acting like there is a quarantine. same as back in April. I'm getting less optimistic about seeing my parents for thanksgiving in 2 weeks. I doubt Texas will shut down again no matter what. We'll probably have a repeat of the summer with local lockdowns and lots of confusion.
We're still under a mask mandate but restaurants can open at 75% i think. Bars in Austin are still closed but in my county they can open.
I am hopeful about an upcoming vaccine but it will be a while before its rolled out.
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Sounds like people are panic buying again, but it's hard to tell since we have Thanksgiving buying as well. We're doing the thing we did at the start of the pandemic where high-demand items would have some boxes set aside for employees, since we can't buy things until after our shift usually. This time its with cleaning supplies, which makes me think Panic Buying...
Our governor is talking with NY and NJ's gov to see what they may do. I don't really want a lockdown and I think most of whats spreading is through small gatherings, but I'm not sure what else can be done...
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Am resigning myself that we won't have a family Christmas this year. I guess being all safe is more important so we're aiming for that first and foremost.
Some idiots keep printing off nonsense about Magna Carta and posting it in their windows claiming it means they can break the law and stay open. They can't. As a history graduate I want to go shake them, hard. Only 4 clauses of Magna Carta are still in law today. The one they're citing isn't one of them, as they would know if they actually did any history, rather than printing something off from some random person they met on social media. Also that I'm pretty sure it would only have applied to them if they happened to be one of a handful of (now long dead) mediaeval barons. And since these posters are mostly appearing in salons and coffee shops, I think that's unlikely >.>
Another guy got fined for opening his gym repeatedly. He stated, that he didn't see any reason why he should close except that there was legislation.
...Erm. Legislation isn't good enough? Fine then.
Numbers in my local area are not so great right now. I don't know if they were like this at the peak in spring - I suspect they were, as we had no local community testing - but it's somehow more intimidating now ONS can give us really local information. Though the govt is confused about how many people per 100k that means, because they randomly changed the population figure and I don't know which one is right. I know my ward has a population of around 3-4000 people. I have no idea about the neighbouring one, though, or why we are being given stats with that ward and not separately ><.
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Am resigning myself that we won't have a family Christmas this year. I guess being all safe is more important so we're aiming for that first and foremost.
Us too. We were planning for my parents to visit for Thanksgiving and Christmas but with case numbers going through the roof it's just not worth the risk. I haven't seen them in almost a year and it looks like it will be at least a year before they can visit safely. As much as I want them to visit I would prefer that all of us survive this pandemic. We'll probably end up doing holidays in March or April.
Taffeta, that incident at the gym sounds very similar to an incident they had here in Texas with a salon owner. She ended up running for a seat on the Texas senate. She's in a runoff so she may win. I feel like some people do this to get infamous by railing against government orders.
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These are the actual coronavirus data from Hungary:
CORONAVIRUS: 174,618 infected. In compulsory home quarantine: 42,370. Recovered: 42,915 Deceased: 3,800.
The daily infection rate is around 3,000
The daily death rate is around 100-120
The mayors have no infection and quarantine data since the first wave ended in May. They only got infection and quarantine info during the first wave.
We only know from the local press's website and Facebook page that a teacher has died in covid-19 last week, but no official local death info.
We have night curfew from 8 pm-5 am since the 11 November. We'll see on Wednesday if there will be a full lockdown here like the one Austria rolled out last Tuesday. :whoa:
I have two negative PCR test results and no positive PCR test results :happy:
I work as a social worker in a nursery where mentally and psychically handicapped/disabled people lives. (sorry I don't know how to describe it better in English :redface: )
The home became a serious coronavirus hotspot in early October. :yikes: luckily no one got into hospital or passed away :frolic: while most of our residents have chronic diseases.
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our new cases from yesterday were the highest ever. 1584 new infections they have detected!
augh! >.<
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How are you guys with mask-wearing?
I'm pretty OK with it well actually I even enjoy it a bit. In weekdays I wear masks about 12 hours with small breaks including workplace and public transport to the workplace and home.
I prefer to wear colourful 3 layers of the textile masks and I try to change it regularly so I use about 4-6 masks a day and wash hand and disinfect regularly and it pays off for me so far.
I have a contact tracer app on my phone but not much people use it so it isn't effective. :(
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Not the most comfy but then I never spend that long inside a shop if I can help it, mask or no, so wearing for that amount of time is a worthy minor inconvenience. I have a cloth mask & when I get home from whatever shop (electric & top-up) I handwash it with hot water & soap immediately.
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I have a few cloth masks that are washed weekly. Every trip to a shop/grocery store I switch them. And ofcourse public transport.
The 1st of December everyone has to wear them in public spaces.
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I am managing masks more than I thought I might, but I did some practice at home before heading into town. We haven't been to town for a bit though. I went last 2 weeks ago to get medicine for the parents but hopefully they will get the next lot delivered.
I can tolerate them outside without much trouble. Inside for short periods. On a bus was fine. I don't know about a longish train journey. But none of those are options for us at the moment so it's not a big deal.
Cases here are levelling, the worst area is here in the Midlands but that is also slowing. Our numbers in this locality have stopped going nuts and the number of cases per 100k has dropped considerably in the last few days. It's not clear if this is the peak of our 2nd wave or what is going on, but the fear that we would have 100k cases a day and rising (what they think was happening in the spring) hasn't materialised.
We now have a nice little govt dashboard which between that and local govt emails makes it easier to see how the virus is in our community. Relieved to see the arrows starting to trend green and down, not red and up :/ But a long way to go.
Govt outlined new tier plan for after Dec 2nd. Not sure how it is harsher than previous, seems more lenient but we'll see.
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I more step back to the lockdown. The old people's shopping hours coming back tomorrow. Retired people can still shop all day but on weekdays from 9-11 and weekend 8-10 only they can shop.
Ps: since last Friday the government launched weekly quick testing for the social homes, teachers and healthcare workers.
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It took me awhile to find a mask that worked for me. I have one with a filter and it fits around my nose, but it also doesn't feel like it's in my nose/mouth when I breath. An odd silver lining, they feel nice on a cold day. Like a scarf would. lol.
Anyway. Things are pretty rough right now. We are at the point where the influx of covid cases will displace non-covid cases in the hospitals..
For the past week, Ohio hasn't had the ability to count all the cases. Statewide, we almost at 12,000 for cases today, and they still aren't reporting all the cases. woo hoo...
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When masks started being required I thought that I would have difficulty breathing in them due to respiratory issues. I had problems at first but finally found masks that don't feel like I am trying to breathe through a plastic bag glued to my face.
Our hospitalization rate higher than the hospitals can handle and we have new cases of the virus in the hundreds everyday. 300 people have died. One newspaper stated my city is one of the top spots in the state right now for new cases.
Restaurants and businesses are still at 50% capacity. Outdoor gatherings are limited to 10 people or less. Masks have been mandatory for months unless you qualify for an exemption but it is now being enforced more strictly. I saw a person stopped as they entered a store and asked why they didn't have a mask on. Stores will usually give you mask to wear in store if you don't have one.
Ponyfan
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It seems the daily infection rate is slowing a bit around only 6500 while the daily death rate has been almost 200 this week.
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Cases in my region are half what they were before our lockdown. Most of them seem to be centred around a university town in the borough. But I haven't seen stories of massive rule breaking here.
Nottingham decided to hold their Christmas fair despite being in Tier 3. It didn't go well...it lasted 1 day before it had to be closed because of too many people and not enough masks/distancing.
Not sure what is wrong with Notts council. Something clearly is.
On the other side, we're beginning vaccinations in the UK in some areas from Tuesday, in the over 80s/care home/health worker groups. One hospital in our county has been selected as one of the vanguard. It's not our hospital. There are apparently reasons for this but there will doubtless be a backlash because of the fierce rift within our health trust and the frequent attacks from the other hospital to undermine services here. We don't know why they do this, but this does seem more of the same. I mean, they want to shut our A&E, even though the county can't handle the current rate of A&E cases in normal time with BOTH open. :/
But word is that GPs will start getting vaccine from 14th december for local areas. One of Dad's friends/our neighbours is over 80, so we're waiting to see if he gets a summons xD. If he does we'll hear all about it - he and Dad stand at the end of the path yelling to each other since lockdown xD. (Friend is a bit deaf, which makes it all the more hilarious).
I don't expect parents to be summoned until January, though, at the very soonest.
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We are back to closed restaurants and bars. Still a statewide mask ordinance.
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Indoor dining in New York City is suspended again starting next Monday. Hospitalizations keep slowly climbing and it sucks. Even with the small amounts of vaccine that are supposed to be coming in, it will only go to 1st line workers and the most vulnerable members of society, it's still spreading. :/
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Over 1000 new cases this week in my county. no new restrictions though. We still don't go out much but it seems like people are wearing masks in stores.
i'm really worried about the cases here. i'm hopeful about the vaccine though. i know it will be a while until we have enough rollout but at least there's light at the end of the tunnel
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As I said in the decomp thread, my local ward and the neighbouring one have had a total of 4 cases between them in the last week, so that seems promising.
Our borough numbers are lower than they were but seem to have stabilised.
Seen some international media talking about a new 'UK spike'. This is Londoncentric reporting - the South East is currently the area rising the quickest, but in areas like the North West and the Midlands the numbers are dropping/stabilised. But international media don't seem to realise that the UK is very regional in things like this :/
In the first lockdown, we opened up when cases were still going up in the north and so the cases there spiked more over the summer. This time it's the South East, so the same applies. Also because people are being silly though...
UK is not out of the woods but better than we were at the end of October.
Our local health trust are currently in some considerable hot water for reasons I won't go into here as it's not COVID related, but they are apparently doing a good job getting the vaccine rolled out. Kind of surprising that this health trust was chosen from the 2000 to be one of the first 50, especially given the scale of the other problems it is facing :/
Local MPs lobbying for us to come down to Tier one on the 16th. Hopefully that doesn't happen. Numbers are also rising in Wales since their lockdown ended and we don't need that right before the Christmas break on restrictions (Such a bad idea).
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The vaccinatines are exciting, but I think only my Mom will get it with the first phase of distribution... hopefully others are approved for distribution before summer.
Indoor dining just got restricted. Gyms, business at 50%, etc.