What was your COVID news for the day?

[Ronstar]

Went to Walmart. Lots of bare shelves. Even the toothpaste shelf.

 

[Hamlet]

This might have some cross-over with the other threads, but I think it fits here?

Daily deaths from COVID-19 in China have dropped to single digits. Eight.

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/china/


Single digits in S Korea as well (I know many don't trust China numbers).

Even Italy, which has been hit hard, may be flattening out (a little early to say, but the last three days are about flat).

In the US, there has been in the range of 1 to 8 deaths per day this month. Can you imagine any other cause getting national attention from 8 deaths a day? I'm gonna guess that more people die each day from heart attacks while trying to open pickle jars.

Sure, we need to be alert to this and take reasonable precautions as it is contagious and likely more serious to the elderly/compromised, but we also need some perspective. I fear that some of the reactions are going to cause more deaths than the virus. Let's see, there are 221 M drivers in the US, and about 1.25 fatalities per 100 million miles. So if each driver made an extra 5 mile trip stocking up over the course of this, that's 14 deaths right there. How many more because some people stock up on sanitizer due to the histeria, leaving other susceptible people without?

DW and I went out for drinks and dinner at the local micro-brewery (had a food truck there , as they do most w/e). Place was pretty full.

We stopped at Trader Joes on the way home to pick up a few things for the w/e, and many shelves were bare. Surreal. A few people we chatted with had comments like "I feel I'm in a 3rd world country". It's crazy. Sure, some prep makes sense, but this has been blown all out of proportion.

Apparently, hoarders don't care much for asparagus, those shelves were full (but we already had some).

-ERD50

A few things. China’s numbers ( if you trust them )have gotten better because they shut just about absolutely everything down in a way that only a totalitarian society can. It’s hard to spread a virus when no one is allowed out of their house.

South Korea’s numbers appear under control because they have done an amazing job of identifying people with this virus. They’re testing 15000 people per day so that they can get those people to isolate themselves. They’ve shut down offices and schools. They have taken this seriously from day one and they appear to be benefiting from that.

Italy’s numbers are a warning about what will happen if we don’t take this seriously and reduce the activities that spread this virus. Italy had daily deaths in the single digits like us 3 weeks ago. In the last 24 hours, 250 people died there. I don’t know where that ramp up ends. Hopefully now that they’ve shut things down it slows back down.

Here in the US, we have absolutely no idea who has it right now. The minimal testing we have done has identified over 2200 cases. I’d be surprised if there aren’t 20,000 out in the wild at this point. We are going to see our number of deaths ramp up dramatically in the next few weeks. Hopefully, the shutdown of activities with large crowds and the social distancing companies and people have started to do will help keep the scale of this from growing to the point that it melts down our health care system like it has Italy’s.

It isn’t that 8 people a day are dying right now. It’s that in 3 weeks it will probably be 250/day, and that in 3 months it could be 2500/day if we don’t slow it’s spread, and our hospitals will be completely overwhelmed.

I’ve been remarkably impressed by how serious businesses have taken it, even at great expense to their bottom line, given that it like you said doesn’t really look like a crisis yet from the immediate numbers. That gives me a lot of hope that we won’t collapse our health care system.

 

[jollystomper]

Both the schools (private secondary and college) DW teaches at shut down starting Thursday and today. Both hope to reopen the first week of April. For college she is supposed to be conducting her classes online but they have administrative/technical issues getting things set up.

Libraries closed today until further notice. No fines for overdue books while they are closed.

I played golf today and a nice course that also has a restaurant. For a very good weather Friday the course was surprisingly empty. One of the workers told me the owner was considering shutting things down.

 

[MRG]

There is no toilet paper left in town or paper products including paper plates. I don't understand what paper plates would be used for in a pandemic but I'll know to stock up next time.[emoji23]

Thought I'd pick up some meat and it was picked over a bit. I looked in the case and this little top sirloin was looking at me. I'll whack it into 6 pieces. I found some chicken breast too so my arteries don't plug.

On serious notes everything in town is shutting down. Public gatherings are being canceled, the local senior center normally serves community lunch, is now a drive thru window. I'm not sure how if many tourist areas will close but it's going to be a big problem for local business.

 

[NW-Bound]

Went to Walmart. Lots of bare shelves. Even the toothpaste shelf.

We have not been to the stores in the last 2 days, and only took some walk around the neighborhood.

Our daughter just texted to say that the store she went to was emptied out! And there are only 8 active cases in the state, with only 2 in the county.

I think the Europe travel ban and the stock market rout finally woke the average person up to this being something big. Prior to this, it did not appear to them being any different than the tsunami in Indonesia, or the one in Japan. It was just a disaster happening to people on the other side of the world.

 

[Hamlet]

Even if every infected person recovered, the fact that there are 15,000 hospitalized patients right now in Italy on top of all other illnesses means that there are NO hospital beds.

If you send people home without treatments, or put them on cots in tents out in the parking lots, the death rate will go a lot higher.

Italian doctors are already having to make the tough decision of letting old and weak patients "go", so that they can use the resource on younger and more viable patients.

They have 15,000 cases. I don’t have any information that says all of those people are in the hospital. Their death rate is extremely high for their number of cases though, so it is possible they are only testing the worst cases and that the mild cases are going uncounted. Regardless it is clear that their health care system is past capacity. I hope we can avoid that here.

 

[NW-Bound]

There is no toilet paper left in town or paper products including paper plates. I don't understand what paper plates would be used for in a pandemic but I'll know to stock up next time.[emoji23]

See, that's how it works.

If I grab 10 bags of salt and put in my grocery cart, the guy next to me might just do the same.

 

[ivinsfan]

A few things. China’s numbers ( if you trust them )have gotten better because they shut just about absolutely everything down in a way that only a totalitarian society can. It’s hard to spread a virus when no one is allowed out of their house.

South Korea’s numbers appear under control because they have done an amazing job of identifying people with this virus. They’re testing 15000 people per day so that they can get those people to isolate themselves. They’ve shut down offices and schools. They have taken this seriously from day one and they appear to be benefiting from that.

Italy’s numbers are a warning about what will happen if we don’t take this seriously and reduce the activities that spread this virus. Italy had daily deaths in the single digits like us 3 weeks ago. In the last 24 hours, 250 people died there. I don’t know where that ramp up ends. Hopefully now that they’ve shut things down it slows back down.

Here in the US, we have absolutely no idea who has it right now. The minimal testing we have done has identified over 2200 cases. I’d be surprised if there aren’t 20,000 out in the wild at this point. We are going to see our number of deaths ramp up dramatically in the next few weeks. Hopefully, the shutdown of activities with large crowds and the social distancing companies and people have started to do will help keep the scale of this from growing to the point that it melts down our health care system like it has Italy’s.

It isn’t that 8 people a day are dying right now. It’s that in 3 weeks it will probably be 250/day, and that in 3 months it could be 2500/day if we don’t slow it’s spread, and our hospitals will be completely overwhelmed.

I’ve been remarkably impressed by how serious businesses have taken it, even at great expense to their bottom line, given that it like you said doesn’t really look like a crisis yet from the immediate numbers. That gives me a lot of hope that we won’t collapse our health care system.

This is a thread about our personal news and family news. I'd like to hear about you personally and not another rehash of numbers and speculation..how are you and your family today..

 

[NW-Bound]

This is a thread about our personal news and family news. I'd like to hear about you personally and not another rehash of numbers and speculation..how are you and your family today..

OK. We are just staying home chilling. No different than most pre-virus days.

My son's engineering corp is cutting out all travel. Nothing exciting or new there.

My daughter is an administrator at the nearby university. They are going to online instruction for students, but she still has to go to work.

 

[Winemaker]

I watched a 6 month old wine TV show about how the Chinese are moving up the scale and have developed a taste for French and Northern Italian wines. Insofar as to buy up wineries in those regions and take cuttings back to the motherland to propagate there. No wonder the infection rate is so high in northern Italy.

 

[Jerry1]

I was hanging out on the computer a lot today so for no reason other than seeing what would happen, I opened up the Costco site and did a search on TP. Well at first, I didn't see anything but then a Kirkland brand came up. It was there but said sold out. Check back a few minutes later and it's not there. Couple more and it is. This time it let me put it in the cart but when I went to check out, it said it was not available. Well, I left it in the cart and tried a few more times throughout the day and what do you know, eventually, I clicked in and it let me check out. It's supposed to be here Wednesday. That was a lot easier than shopping empty shelves or long lines in the physical stores.

We have enough but it was a variety that I did want to try (ultra soft or something like that) so I'll probably see if anyone needs some and just keep one of the packages for myself. It is 4 packages of 9 rolls. If I see on Nextdoor that someone is out, I'll make their day a little brighter.

It reminded me of the time me and DW went to the store to get my daughter a Cabbage Patch Kid for Christmas. We had to elbow our way in and grab one fast. Of course we were much younger then. Maybe it's an illness, but for some reason I like the hunt. I have no idea why but it seems to have stuck even to this day. So my COVID news is that I bought TP. Woo Hoo! Winning!

 

[Sunset]

......
76 YO parents Called and said they can’t find toilet paper in the store so they bought paper napkins. ..
....

I think you should phone them and tell them to NOT flush them down the toilet, they may not know.
If they do, it's likely it will clog the pipes and turn into a major issue.

 

[Jerry1]

I think you should phone them and tell them to NOT flush them down the toilet, they may not know.
If they do, it's likely it will clog the pipes and turn into a major issue.

I was thinking the same thing. I think it will also be a tough time for the sewage equipment. I've seen a lot of comments about using those flushable wipes if there's no TP. They can call those things flushable, but I wouldn't flush them down my sewer pipes and they reek havoc on the waste water equipment.

 

[mountainsoft]

I went grocery shopping today, just my usual, nothing COVID related. I expected the store to be empty since people are panicking about being in large groups. Instead the store was absolutely packed. So much for the six foot apart rule. There were easily a few hundred people in the store.

Thankfully, everyone was polite and courteous and the employees were doing an excellent job trying to keep up. Impressive considering the craziness. There were very long lines at every register when I arrived but they had worked through them all by the time I went to check-out.

I had my grocery list with me and found most items I needed, but there was a lot of stuff missing or low on stock. Toilet paper and other paper products were completely gone. Pasta, pasta sauce, and canned goods were very low stock. There were only two cans of green beans left, and one can of tuna fish. Surprisingly, there was plenty of produce, milk, bread, beer, and wine.

Some guy in front of me bought four 24-packs of bottled water. What's up with that? The bottled water shelves were nearly empty. What does COVID-19 have to do with the water supply? I must have missed that news bulletin.

Some over the counter medications were completely wiped out too, thought I didn't bother to see which ones were missing.

On other news, my mom is in an assisted living home. They sent out notice today that NO visitors are allowed, only "essential" personnel. Guess mom's gonna have to do without her sweet treats for a while...

Traffic this last week has been incredibly light. Even at rush hour Wednesday night there were only a few cars on the road.

Virtually every event in our area has been cancelled, including schools and churches.

It's weird. Feels like a post apocalyptic world...

 

[Gumby]

I heard that many colleges were either sending their students away or telling them not to come back from Spring Break, and I thought about how that would have affected me those 40 odd years ago. Just like Richard Gere in "An Officer and a Gentleman", I had nowhere else to go. That's why I stayed at school for every spring break and almost every holiday. It will be devastating for those young people who have no family to back them up.

 

[skipro33]

I had 5 yards of AB roadbase delivered today, Limestone with lots of fines. I wanted to get it before the big storm expected this weekend here in the Sierras. Why? Because you can never have enough gravel when the SHTF like it's doing now. Ha!

But seriously, I am confused about all the hub bub over this virus. Particularly why this virus and not any of the ones prior. Swine flu/H1N1 in 2009 had sickened 61 million Americans and 12,500 died. To date, 1,250 sickened and 36 deaths for Coronavirus. What's different this time around?

Here's where I found these stats;
https://upnorthlive.com/news/local/coronavirus-vs-swine-flu-the-numbers

Further news for the day from our family; one son is director of video operations at Chase Center (Golden State Warriors). He was told to work from home since they won't be having any basketball games or any events for that matter.

The other son is dean at a private university. They, so far, are staying open. I doubt that will last because there's been a death from the virus in their county. (Elderly with underlying heath issues) Both have school age children. First son obviously can care for his if schools close, but so far they haven't. (Napa, CA) Second son has 4 kids and school has closed. He told me that he went to the store today and a woman in line asked him if he was preparing for the zombie apocalypse. He said he had 4 kids locked out of school, stuck at home, he's already living the apocalypse. Ha!

Got a message from both, they are coming to our house this weekend; Saturday and overnight to Sunday. I put a 16 pound brisket in the smoker at 10pm, should be ready by dinner time tomorrow at 6pm. We love having them all here and we all ski, and so far the resorts are staying open so we'll be skiing a lot next week.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

I heard that many colleges were either sending their students away or telling them not to come back from Spring Break, and I thought about how that would have affected me those 40 odd years ago. Just like Richard Gere in "An Officer and a Gentleman", I had nowhere else to go. That's why I stayed at school for every spring break and almost every holiday. It will be devastating for those young people who have no family to back them up.

I thought about that as well. I hope the colleges were prepared to let the students with no where else to go stay on, or at least assist them in finding alternative housing.

 

[Bamaman]

We're due to fly to Berlin in a week, and our return flight has been cancelled.

Our news is that our travel agent doesn't answer the phone or emails, and British Airways won't talk to us directly for a cancellation and full refund of our airfare.

 

[Doribe]

I plan to go to Bonaire in the Dutch Antilles on Monday. I just read Bonaire is not allowing cruise ships to dock and no travelers from Europe. There are zero cases of COVID-19 there and they want to keep it that way.

I just hope they don't put US on their "not allowed" list.

If I get canceled, I hope I get most of my money back because this was a pretty big splurge for us. Between airfare, resort, truck rental, and unlimited dive tanks I have put out over $4000.

 

[Calico]

The governor declared a state of emergency three days ago.

My county declared a state of emergency today.

Multiple town and county services closed until further notice at 6 pm today:

Library closed
County and local schools closed
Department of Recreation - all classes and activities cancelled
Senior Center - all activities cancelled, except for the free lunch (pick up only)
VITA - all services cancelled

Local university is going to online classes.

My propane company has closed its office (no walk-in service) but I schedule deliveries and pay the bill on their website, so this will not affect me.

Last but not least:

For the past three days at w#rk we have had training on multiple software tools to utilize while w#rking from home. Our office shut down at 6 pm today. We are all (150+) w#rking remotely until further notice, which is a huge relief to me.

I plan to only go out for essentials for the foreseeable future. Maybe now I will only have to wash my hands 20 times a day instead of 40 times a day.

Edited to add: in the past 72 hours the cases in my state have increased from 9 to 19.

 

[NW-Reader]

From Twitter. The University of Washington is really stepping up their testing.

UW Virology
@UWVirology
·
7h
@UWVirology
performed #SARSCoV2 #CoronavirusUSA #HCoV19 tests for 1680 people on 3/12. About 7% positive. Let’s all work together #WeGotThisSeattle to #FlattenTheCurve!

 

[FIREd]

In my area:

- all schools and universities are closed indefinitely. Classes have moved online. Parents who have to miss work to take care of the kids will receive financial compensation.
- gatherings of 100+ people are banned.
- many businesses requiring close physical contact with customers are closed (spas, dentist offices for non emergency treatments, etc...).
- elective surgeries are being postponed to free hospital beds.
- The panic buying started yesterday (I'm glad I saw it coming and stocked up in February).
- Medical students and doctors/nurses who retired in the last 5 years have been asked to join the effort to fight the pandemic. The medical reserve has been activated.
- The elderly and those most at risk have been asked to self-isolate.

 

[tulak]

I’ve been working from home the last week.

Found out today that DS starts spring quarter a week later and it’s online until the end of April. DD spring break was extended a week, but I’m skeptical she’ll be flying back any time soon. I suspect they’ll delay longer, but haven’t figured out the logistics yet.

Since we’re all home, I thought we’d take a ski trip to Whistler. Unfortunately, it crosses an international border and I’m not sure that’s wise right now. I already booked accommodations and it looks like I can’t cancel without eating the cost. So now I’m debating if we should go anyways and enjoy ourselves. After all, what are the odds we’ll catch a virus on the side of a mountain?

 

[ABQ2015]

I was on a road trip in a remote West Texas location the first week of March so spent this Tuesday and Wednesday stocking up on food and other supplies and feeling like I was way behind in my preparations. With the exception of hand sanitizer, disinfectant wipes, and rubbing alcohol, the stores were well stocked and checkout lines not long except at Costco. Meanwhile the COVID-19 cases in my state went from zero to 10, mostly in my metro area and the government prohibited mass gatherings and cancelled school for 3 weeks, all in a matter of 2-3 days.

Today (Friday) a neighbor sent me a text that his son, who works for a large grocery chain, had warned him that food could be in short supply for a few weeks (implying more than 2 weeks). So decided to go to a small neighborhood grocery store and buy a few more dry and canned goods just to be safe. This time the lines were much longer and the lady next to me in line was describing her daughter's trip to Walmart the night before as a nightmare - huge lines and empty shelves and frantic shoppers. So I am very relieved that I finished most of my shopping earlier.

My RN cousin also sent out a posting on FB today on COVID-19 warning that it has been worse in those taking ACE inhibitors. Not what I wanted to hear, especially since I am 65 years old so already at risk, but reinforces my plan to stay at home the next few weeks.

 

[RxMan]

My employer yesterday told us that it is “strongly encouraged but not mandatory” to work from home until at least the end of the month. My wife’s master’s program classes will now be completely online.

The number of cases has trickled up in our state with most of those coming from my county. We have some cases related to that Biogen conference that were the first reported cases here.

Panic grocery shopping reminds me of the hurricane prep shopping that can happen here. The next shoe to drop here will inevitably be the local school systems shutdown as soon as the free meal programs can be figured out.

Crazy times indeed. Someone will make a movie out of these events someday!