What was your COVID news for the day?

[Alan]

Talked to my brother in Australia last night. He and his wife had just made it back from Singapore. 3 weeks ago before they left on vacation to Dubai, planning part of their vacation being a 9 day cruise calling at Kuala Lumpur and Singapore he seemed totally unaware of the Coronavirus issue and the problems with the cruise ship in Japan.

Their 9 day cruise was cut to 8 days, 3 days cruising around and 5 days at anchor just out of dock, so the casino could be open I assume.

He and his wife are now in a mandatory 14 day house isolation. He said that he doesn't understand all the fuss since it's only a variant of the flu which kills lots of folks every year.

I put him straight, pointing out that the most vulnerable to dying from the virus are the old and those with underlying health condition such as obese old men with high BP, and respiratory problems such as asthma.(I've no idea if that statement is true but he is in his 60s, obese, asthmatic, high BP and nearly died from a pulmonary embolism a couple of years ago)

 

[Nemo2]

.... he is in his 60s, obese, asthmatic, high BP and nearly died from a pulmonary embolism a couple of years ago

In that case he's probably correct.....flu is just as likely to kill him.

 

[Alan]

In that case he's probably correct.....flu is just as likely to kill him.

And he is an underground coal miner

 

[NW-Bound]

A classic case of sticking one's head in the sand.

 

[John Galt III]

Got news today that my county is suspending recycling pickups. Not sure why that particular service would be affected, but back to those days of yesteryear when we just threw everything in the trash. And I'll stop being exercised by those malefactors who cram their forbidden cardboard into the dumpster.

Here in Pa the curbside recycling is still going on, and the employees don't even wear masks. I was happy to see them take away a boatload of my recent paper decluttering efforts this morning. However, the drop-off recycling place has been closed for a week, and remains closed indefinitely. Ugh.

 

[Alan]

A classic case of sticking one's head in the sand.

Or in his case, a coal heap.

It has been an Australian thing to ignore the pandemic and a couple of days ago authorities had to close Bondi Beach because so many folks were ignoring official advice to socially distance themselves.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/corona...h-crowds-ignore-social-distancing-guidelines/

Officials in Australia have temporarily closed Sydney's iconic Bondi Beach after crowds ignored the government's warnings about preventing the spread of the novel coronavirus.

 

[MRG]

That was started here last week. My neighbor said there was a line at 6 am when the grocery opened to 60+. He came home and went back an hour later and the crowd was gone. They still had stock and he avoided the danger.

I went this morning at 7:15 for our second event(M,W.F 7-8AM). I won't be going back, instead I'll wait till 9AM or so whenever the influx of insane seniors is over.

Today some were covered up in masks and gloves while others walked around greeting old friends like a social event. Place was packed and a zoo. There was no paper products and the canned section was a post apocalyptic scene.

One unfortunate couple attempted to push by me in an attempt to go round a blocked isle. I had no place to go I was attempting to get back away from the jam when they scared me. "GET BACK" I bellowed as I quickly headed towards a panic attack. They did. I was able to recover, only missed about a third of the list, and quickly checked myself out.

 

[Rianne]

We figured we have enough beans and rice to last a month.

 

[audreyh1]

The local media has proposed that our county heath officials have been withholding too much information about the details of the cases here, hiding behind HIPAA.

What I want to know are details about where and how the community spread is happening. It seems to me that this information is essential to 'flatten the curve', but these local health officials are being vague. I don't want to know who's sick, just anonymized information about where they've been and what they've done. Some people have probably been mixing with other people 20 times in the 4 to 8 days before symptom onset, but there are probably thoughtful people that have been at home with no contact except with one store or one event. If we knew what they did to contract the virus, everyone could avoid that activity.

Are there any personal anecdotes from people here concerning this 'very local information' (county heath authorities) about what locations and behaviors are likely to be risky? It seems like if your specific local health people are being more transparent than mine, I could use that information as a proxy.

I think it’s pretty obvious from the county by county statistics per state. GA publishes whether community spreading has been confirmed in a given county. Of course this is after the fact, but still. You can clearly see where the big clusters are, and otherwise if it’s 1 or 2 in a given county and hasn’t changed for several days, that might not be community spread. I sometimes find the backstory in local county online media. TX is also publishing county by county cases, but I don’t remember if they mention community spread.

 

[NW-Bound]

Two weeks ago - it feels like eons ago - we had a family get-together scheduled to celebrate my son's promotion and the big raise that came with it. I proposed a specific restaurant, but then my son said he wanted it at home so we could drink more.

When things got worse so quickly, I discussed with my wife and we wondered if it should be canceled. It was good that my son spoke up first about the cancellation. And my daughter also concurred.

I felt good that my youngsters took this seriously. Prior to this, I kept wondering with my wife whether we should educate them about this matter, and in a way that would not offend them. My worry was all unnecessary.

 

[gwraigty]

This is crap treatment by your DD employer and it needs to stop. That's unacceptable they can give her a minimum per shift let's say 4 hours or more or quit making her go out and possibly get exposed to the virus. She'll make more money if she just stays at home unemployed.,

I do appreciate your sentiment. You know how frustrated I've been over the last week. Things are looking up though. She's scheduled for 35 hours next week! The scheduling manager assured her that she will get to work them. The schedule has been made to match the pandemic level of business they have. There have been lots of changes over the last week. One of the older employees has volunteered to not work for awhile. Some of the younger employees are afraid to work, so they've asked not to be scheduled. Some of the parents of the teenagers are forbidding them from working.

DD said that several employees are scheduled for only a few hours for the whole week, but maybe that's all they're comfortable with. Only she and one other guy have full time hours. Believe me, I knew they weren't trying to treat her poorly. The management isn't like that at this store. It appears to be a good place to work. This whole situation isn't at all normal and everyone is scrambling to figure things out. It sounds like they're starting to. When I picked her up, we bought a few pieces of bakery and a couple of 1/2 sandwiches to take home. I could tell the bakers aren't putting in the time either. There must have been a whole lot donated last week.

There's been a lot of talk on these forums of the fears people have going out. The workers who are having to serve the public are now feeling much the same way about the customers.

 

[W2R]

We figured we have enough beans and rice to last a month.

I discovered that I am not eating as much as I thought I would. I thought I started out with a month and a half worth of food (steaks in the freezer, canned goods in the pantry, and so on) but now it looks like it may last a couple of months or longer. It's not due to sadness or weight loss efforts (I'm maintaining). Probably just due to my age and no gym. We ordered restaurant delivery twice.

In New Orleans, we have been under virtual lockdown by the Mayor's orders for over a week, and the Louisiana National Guard is in place here to help keep people off the street. As of yesterday the governor ordered the same lockdown for the whole state. Like many (all?) other states we are required to stay home except for going to the grocery store, doctor, or pharmacy. Bars, casinos, theaters, gyms, barbers, various entertainment venues, dentists, and every other type of business imaginable are closed, including restaurants although they can deliver. No groups of over 10 people. Lakeshore Avenue, that runs along the lake, and "The Fly" (a park alongside the river) are closed because groups of people tend to congregate in those places. We can't drive to the boat launch to watch the birds any more because that's not considered to be a necessity. It's probably closed too.

Surprisingly this type of life is perfectly do-able and we are not getting stir-crazy yet. I worry about F because he is a little bit more of an extrovert than me, but he says he is doing fine so far. Thank goodness we are next door neighbors.

 

[MBAustin]

I saw this on FB and was going to post it in the Coronavirus Humor thread but I actually think it's a great idea:

How to stop hoarding of hand sanitizer

It would be pretty easy to implement as long as the governments agreed that this wasn't price gouging. Obviously only applies to retail settings.

 

[gwraigty]

After picking DD up from work, we went on a brief Walmart run. She wanted to see the empty shelves in person. She was also helpful in choosing a few things that I might have passed over.

Produce was stocked pretty well. Meats in some areas were running low, but the beef roasts and steaks and fresh pork looked well stocked. The frozen meat section was nearly empty. The frozen seafood still had plenty in it. Bread was being stocked. Still no peanut butter or jelly to speak of. Coffee looked fuller than last week. Almost no bacon and the sausage was looking like it was getting picked over. Almost no lunchmeat and getting low on hot dogs. They're running out of sliced and shredded cheese. Boxed cereal has been stocked. Only a few bottles of pancake syrup left. Last week they were out of sugar. Today there is barely any sugar. This means that they got some sugar in since last Thurs. and it's now almost sold out. The same for the bagged cereals. No toilet paper. There are signs of Limit 1 on those. I can imagine that's the first aisle that many people check. Even if it's full up, it's probably wiped out within the first half hour. Only a few boxes of tissues on the shelf. Hopefully people aren't flushing them. Fresh stock on the canned Chinese vegetables. Still hardly any soup or canned fruits and those fruits with jello in the plastic cups are nearly all gone. Some canned veggies looked like they might have been restocked and are now nearly picked over. There's almost no canned beans left. Almost no pasta or pasta sauce, dried beans, no rice, only a few packages of Knorr-type rice/noodles in sauces.

It's impossible for me to say if they were stocked well before the weekend and got cleaned out by the fresh wave of panic buying reported in our local paper, or if it's still that bad trying to get stock in at all.

 

[Philliefan33]

Before Corona, my mother was preparing for a TKR on 3/30. As part of that I mentioned that she could place her grocery order online at Wegmans and Dad could pick it up curbside. I thought it would help during her convalescence. She didn’t seem interested but Dad heard me. When I talked to them yesterday he said that he had convinced mom to try the curbside pickup so she wouldn’t have to go in the store. I was glad to hear that.

 

[statsman]

I saw this on FB and was going to post it in the Coronavirus Humor thread but I actually think it's a great idea:

How to stop hoarding of hand sanitizer

It would be pretty easy to implement as long as the governments agreed that this wasn't price gouging. Obviously only applies to retail settings.

In the US, this probably can't be done, so limiting purchases is the way to go. Our local HEB stores have it computerized. If you (or a cashier) attempts to scan an item that will exceed the allotted amount for that item type, it won't ring up. In the case of self-checkout, the item needs to be taken by a person monitoring the stations and the register cleared out.

 

[bbbamI]

Stopped by the grocery store...they had tp (Charmin, my favorite) and paper towels (limit 3 each).

The freezers with veggies and dinners were almost full instead of barren and they had a good selection of meat. Limits on chicken and beef. For the most part everything looked normal. That was nice to see.

 

[Ready]

Amazon is now quoting me a delivery date of April 21 for any non-essential items. So next day delivery just became next month delivery.

 

[Aerides]

Amazon is now quoting me a delivery date of April 21 for any non-essential items. So next day delivery just became next month delivery.

Amazon has this date on all inventory that has arrived in their centers in the past ~10 days, if it's not one of the categories marked as essential.

 

[ABQ2015]

The local media has proposed that our county heath officials have been withholding too much information about the details of the cases here, hiding behind HIPAA.

What I want to know are details about where and how the community spread is happening. It seems to me that this information is essential to 'flatten the curve', but these local health officials are being vague. I don't want to know who's sick, just anonymized information about where they've been and what they've done. Some people have probably been mixing with other people 20 times in the 4 to 8 days before symptom onset, but there are probably thoughtful people that have been at home with no contact except with one store or one event. If we knew what they did to contract the virus, everyone could avoid that activity.

Are there any personal anecdotes from people here concerning this 'very local information' (county heath authorities) about what locations and behaviors are likely to be risky? It seems like if your specific local health people are being more transparent than mine, I could use that information as a proxy.

My state Department of Health has been generous reporting age, sex, and county of each case and indicating whether it was related to travel or to a specific contact (implied contact with traveler). Most travel related cases were not international travel but travel to NYC or tourists from the east coast. There were also news stories about a gym patron, a credit union employee, an east coast tourist on a Taos ski vacation, and local military who recently traveled out of state all testing positive. One case identified last week in my county had no known exposure so it is believed that there is some community spread. However as cases have increased to 65, there has no information the last two days as to whether the last 20 cases were travel/specific contact related which leads one to question whether there has been more community spread.

While this is not as much information as I would like, it is much more than is reported in some states. My sister lives in Oregon and all I can find online for her area is number of cases by county.

 

[FIREd]

Seventh day of confinement. I went on a quick trip to the grocery store's drive-thru this morning to pick up some groceries for my mother. The drive thru was busy, but the store's parking lot was pretty empty. Very few people out and about. When I drove by the "boulangerie", there were some people waiting in line outside, standing 6-10' apart (2 people max allowed inside at a time).

So far, most people seem to handle the confinement pretty well. My mother, who lives alone, has to work hard to keep her spirits up. I try to call often to get her mind off of the situation.

I was looking for a project to keep busy this afternoon. One of the top university hospitals in France released instructions on how to make washable, reusable fabric masks (not as good as surgical masks, which are impossible to come by at he moment, but an apparently decent alternative). It turned out that I had all the required material at home: I ripped up an old shirt to get the tightly woven cotton fabric for the lining and an old fleece jacket was sacrificed to make the "filtering" layer. I got the sewing machine out and got to town. The result is actually very nice. The mask fits surprisingly well around my face. It forms a seal around my nose and mouth and it takes some effort to breathe through the mask. I have no idea whether I'll have a use for it, but it kept me busy for a few hours.

 

[harllee]

Just got a delivery from Fed Ex. The driver dropped the box twice walking up my steps and then threw it on the porch. He was yelling at someone on the phone the whole time. I am sure these drivers are under stress but there s no excuse for this. 2 items in the box damaged. I will be filing a claim with the seller for the damages.

 

[TrvlBug]

Went out a day early for 2 of 4 errands scheduled for tomorrow. Drug store to pick up those types of items and they had everything including batteries for our thermometer . Don't think there were more than 6 customers during the time I was there at 10am.

Second errand was to UPS store to pick up our mail (done on grocery run day now) and overnight a box of N95 masks to family member in NYC. She's an RN and they have no masks...a couple of patients in her ward have tested positive for Covid-19. We had some as DH has to wear them when gardening and I purchased extra during the CA fires in 2018 . I worry about her as her hospital treats a large population who don't believe in social distancing.

Trifecta for today is that I've lost 3 lbs. in the last 2 weeks .

 

[fh2000]

Just heard from local TV station: Los Angeles city contracted a Korean company to conduct testing for 20,000 cases beginning soon.

Every city is on their own to save their citizens.

 

[mountainsoft]

I made a quick trip to the grocery store today, then took a "goodie bag" up to mom's assisted living. I couldn't visit her, but the staff met me at the door and took my goodie bag up to her. Just a few little treats to hopefully keep her from going stir crazy in her room.

While I was at the store I actually scored a tiny little 4-pack of toilet paper and a small roll of paper towels. It was the only pack of TP on the shelves, I felt guilty for taking it but we're not stock piled in TP either. Hopefully that will let us go another couple weeks, or I may pass it on to my daughter if she runs out first. It's not the brand or size I would normally get, but beggars can't be choosy.

Some lady told me there was a case of TP up at the front of the store, but I never saw it so I'm not sure what she was referring to. Still, today was a good sign that basic supplies may start trickling back into stores in the coming weeks. There still wasn't any flour, sugar, or yeast, and there was less milk than my last couple of trips.