Coronavirus pandemic

[Roadgeekteen]

Can you swim with a mask?

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/98/57/86/98578638639cba1aba7df978bf99b56f.jpg   

Oops, feel stupid now. So will swimmers have to wear that?

[kphoger]

Park City, a suburb of Wichita, has decided to not open the pool this summer.  We're hoping Haysville will open theirs, because it's a great spot for our good friends' daughter's birthday in a few months.

[LM117]

Los Angles County (CA) has now issued an order that indefinitely prohibits people from gathering.  There is no end date on this order.

Revised Order Issued:  May 13, 2020

Violation of or failure to comply with this Order is a crime punishable by fine, imprisonment, or both.

This Order is effective within the County of Los Angeles Public Health Jurisdiction, defined as all unincorporated areas and cities within the County of Los Angles with the exception of the cities of Long Beach and Pasadena.  This Order is effective immediately and will continue until further notice.

... gatherings of people who are not part of a single household or living unit are prohibited within the County of Los Angeles Public Health Jurisdiction, except for the limited purposes expressly permitted by this Order.

No end date? Yeah, I seriously doubt this would hold up in court.

[tradephoric]

What curve does your state look like?

Louisiana:  Big outbreak followed by a decline and leveling off to their "lock down" equilibrium.

Georgia:  Slow increase in cases before leveling off to their "lock down" equilibrium.

California:  Slow increase in cases still searching for their "lock down" equilibrium.

Montana:  One of the lucky state where their "lock down" equilibrium equals zero cases.

[Max Rockatansky]

Los Angles County (CA) has now issued an order that indefinitely prohibits people from gathering.  There is no end date on this order.

Revised Order Issued:  May 13, 2020

Violation of or failure to comply with this Order is a crime punishable by fine, imprisonment, or both.

This Order is effective within the County of Los Angeles Public Health Jurisdiction, defined as all unincorporated areas and cities within the County of Los Angles with the exception of the cities of Long Beach and Pasadena.  This Order is effective immediately and will continue until further notice.

... gatherings of people who are not part of a single household or living unit are prohibited within the County of Los Angeles Public Health Jurisdiction, except for the limited purposes expressly permitted by this Order.

No end date? Yeah, I seriously doubt this would hold up in court.

Probably just takes one company or advocacy group to protest to get an expiration date back on there.  Alameda County tried to stand up to Tesla the other day and backed off hard once they threatened to move out of state.  Either way, man my commentary about on Metro Los Angeles is looking only more sound by the day. 

[Roadgeekteen]

What curve does your state look like?

Louisiana:  Big outbreak followed by a decline and leveling off to their "lock down" equilibrium.

Georgia:  Slow increase in cases before leveling off to their "lock down" equilibrium.

California:  Slow increase in cases still searching for their "lock down" equilibrium.

Montana:  One of the lucky state where their "lock down" equilibrium equals zero cases.

How are the cases still soaring in California? I thought that they were one of the first to lock down?

[Max Rockatansky]

What curve does your state look like?

Louisiana:  Big outbreak followed by a decline and leveling off to their "lock down" equilibrium.

Georgia:  Slow increase in cases before leveling off to their "lock down" equilibrium.

California:  Slow increase in cases still searching for their "lock down" equilibrium.

Montana:  One of the lucky state where their "lock down" equilibrium equals zero cases.

How are the cases still soaring in California? I thought that they were one of the first to lock down?

Mostly Los Angeles County which wasn't really doing much of anything until the State order came out.  The six Bay Area Counties did their own thing first along with several other cities before the State order.  Ten million people live in Los Angeles County which to give some idea of why the numbers are so high there.  Los Angeles County has about 33.5 cases per 10,000 whereas the State average is about 18.5 per 10,000. 

[SEWIGuy]

Evidently, Ohio is already opening swimming pools on May 26 - which is stunningly early considering how late Ohio is at everything.

Kentucky and Ohio are actually pretty far ahead of California.

Pools? Can covid be transmitted through water? Can you swim with a mask?

Chlorine kills it.

[oscar]

I don't believe anywhere prevents protesting if the 6-foot rule is followed.

I don't see it listed as a purpose "expressly permitted" by the Los Angeles County order I quoted up-thread.  All gatherings other than those expressly permitted are prohibited.

Unless that prohibition is overridden by the U.S. and/or state constitutions.

The Los Angeles County order has lots of exceptions, and incorporates other orders by reference, some of which might allow an out for political protests (including but not limited to coronavirus-related issues).

All those exceptions could also support a legal challenge to the order. That's what happened in Kentucky regarding restrictions on worship activities. The Federal appeals court basically said "you allow a lot of other group activities to go on such as law firms, laundromats, airlines, or liquor stores, subject to social distancing rules, but it's unconstitutional discrimination not to give similar breaks to churches". The same could easily be said for political protests also protected by the First Amendment.

[kphoger]

All those exceptions could also support a legal challenge to the order. That's what happened in Kentucky regarding restrictions on worship activities. The Federal appeals court basically said "you allow a lot of other group activities to go on such as law firms, laundromats, airlines, or liquor stores, subject to social distancing rules, but it's unconstitutional discrimination not to give similar breaks to churches". The same could easily be said for political protests also protected by the First Amendment.

I'm aware of one church here in Wichita that has already re-opened for worship services.  Because they are a small congregation in a large building, they have been able to abide by all the guidelines–including roping off areas for groups of ten congregants or less.

I'm actually kind of interested to know what it's like worshiping in that context.

Most churches in town are shooting for a re-opening date 5½ weeks from now.

[bandit957]

Evidently, Ohio is already opening swimming pools on May 26 - which is stunningly early considering how late Ohio is at everything.

Kentucky and Ohio are actually pretty far ahead of California.

Pools? Can covid be transmitted through water? Can you swim with a mask?

I don't think this virus is waterborne, and I very much doubt people are going to be swimming with masks.

Some areas around the country have opened beaches even for swimming.

[tradephoric]

What curve does your state look like?

Louisiana:  Big outbreak followed by a decline and leveling off to their "lock down" equilibrium.

Georgia:  Slow increase in cases before leveling off to their "lock down" equilibrium.

California:  Slow increase in cases still searching for their "lock down" equilibrium.

Montana:  One of the lucky state where their "lock down" equilibrium equals zero cases.

How are the cases still soaring in California? I thought that they were one of the first to lock down?

California is increasing their testing so it's likely that the actual daily infections is pretty flat right now (as increasing testing finds more cases).  But flat during the lock down isn't great either.  The California and Georgia curves reminds me of a stock that had a big run up and is now in its consolidation phase (or in this case the "lock down" phase).  It looks like a coiled spring ready to explode higher when the next wave of buyers step in (or when the economy reopens). 

[kphoger]

Evidently, Ohio is already opening swimming pools on May 26 - which is stunningly early considering how late Ohio is at everything.

Kentucky and Ohio are actually pretty far ahead of California.

Pools? Can covid be transmitted through water? Can you swim with a mask?

I don't think this virus is waterborne, and I very much doubt people are going to be swimming with masks.

Some areas around the country have opened beaches even for swimming.

I was assuming it wasn't even about the water.  At the pool, people are still in close quarters in the shower room, in line for the diving board, wading around...

[renegade]

Evidently, Ohio is already opening swimming pools on May 26 - which is stunningly early considering how late Ohio is at everything.

Kentucky and Ohio are actually pretty far ahead of California.

Pools? Can covid be transmitted through water? Can you swim with a mask?

Chlorine kills it.

So I've heard!   

[RobbieL2415]

The only part of the Constitution that is relevant here is freedom of assembly. It's not being restricted to prevent protests or anything involving government. It's being restricted to get rid of a deadly virus.

So are people still allowed to gather for political protests?

While they can't be prohibited entirely, it goes against what the protesters are trying to advocate for, as they might be spreading the virus.

I don't believe anywhere prevents protesting if the 6-foot rule is followed.

I don't see it listed as a purpose "expressly permitted" by the Los Angeles County order I quoted up-thread.  All gatherings other than those expressly permitted are prohibited.

But does a protest satisfy the legal definition of "gathering" under CA law?

If it doesn't then it would have to be permitted.

[kalvado]

Evidently, Ohio is already opening swimming pools on May 26 - which is stunningly early considering how late Ohio is at everything.

Kentucky and Ohio are actually pretty far ahead of California.

Pools? Can covid be transmitted through water? Can you swim with a mask?

Chlorine kills it.

So I've heard!   

Clearing out water from the nose/mouth/ears means literally spraying infection around.

[Brandon]

Evidently, Ohio is already opening swimming pools on May 26 - which is stunningly early considering how late Ohio is at everything.

Kentucky and Ohio are actually pretty far ahead of California.

Pools? Can covid be transmitted through water? Can you swim with a mask?

Chlorine kills it.

So I've heard!   

Clearing out water from the nose/mouth/ears means literally spraying infection around.

I don't know how you swim, but I've never seen that, nor done that.

[vdeane]

So we have a family vacation planned for the second week of June.  Flying to Boston, with 3 nights in Boston, one in Albany, and two in NYC.  Anybody from MA or NY with a sense of whether or not tourism will be welcomed by then?

We can reschedule this to as late as the first week in August but if we can't do the trip by then it isn't happening.

Yeah, I'd reschedule.  I can tell you right now that June is basically off the table for the NY portions, especially downstate.  Last I heard, hotels reopen in phase 3 (though they're not mentioned on the industry breakdown).  Only three regions have been cleared so far to begin Phase 1, and those regions may be able to shift to phase 2 at the end of the month if things don't worsen.  Phase 3 would begin at least two weeks after that.

The Capital Region is still waiting for its death count to decline more (personally, I'm not really sure why that's a metric, since it lags new infections by 6-8 weeks, but that's what they're using), and NYC and the Mid-Hudson regions are still hot spots, so even phase 1 by the end of the month may be optimistic.  I don't know how MA is doing, but last I heard, Boston was a hot spot.

Everything you could want to know about NY's reopening plan and how the regions are doing is here: https://forward.ny.gov/

In the NY Forward link, are the regions in yellow the ones that will be Phase I beginning this weekend?

Not all of them.  Those are the ones classified as "lower risk" based on their current hospitalization trends and utilization.  The Finger Lakes, Southern Tier, and Mohawk Valley were the ones that were originally announced as having met all seven criteria to reopen; since then, the North Country has ramped up its testing capability and will be reopening as well.  Central NY is still doing that.

The dashboard is updated daily with each region's status, as is the hospitalization trend chart.  I'm not sure what's driving the current spike of cases in the Capital District (especially since we're fully cleared for elective surgeries and the media keeps talking about how our case count is at a record low), but it's making me start to believe the people who say the Capital District is really downstate instead of upstate.

Update: Central NY had upped their testing capability, so now all the regions that were in yellow will be reopening tomorrow, although that map is no longer on the page.

[Revive 755]

Good to see Virginia not punishing the whole state for the high caseloads of a few counties that are in close proximity to each other (*cough*Illinois*cough*Michigan*cough)

The Illinois one appears to be having disobedience forming at county levels, particularly Madison County (St. Louis area) and Kendall County (west of Joliet for those unfamiliar with Chicagoland).

[Scott5114]

Casinos are starting to open up in Oklahoma.

[Bruce]

Casinos are starting to open up in Oklahoma.

One of ours (Angel of the Winds) reopened yesterday and has been causing some large traffic jams. They take your temperature at the door and have banned smoking in all indoor facilities.

[Max Rockatansky]

Casinos are starting to open up in Oklahoma.

One of ours (Angel of the Winds) reopened yesterday and has been causing some large traffic jams. They take your temperature at the door and have banned smoking in all indoor facilities.

Some of the casinos in California are talking about opening in early June.  I'm kind of surprised that some of them in Fresno County haven't put out a plan since the County doesn't really have it's own order.

[Bruce]

Snohomish County is starting to look into some pneumonia cases from December that may have been undetected COVID-19. It was likely in the community long before we had our first confirmed case in late January.

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/antibody-test-results-of-2-snohomish-county-residents-throw-into-question-timeline-of-coronaviruss-u-s-arrival/

I came down with an unusually strong cold in mid-January after some other people in my class sat near me while coughing away. Perhaps I should order a test for antibodies.

[Max Rockatansky]

Snohomish County is starting to look into some pneumonia cases from December that may have been undetected COVID-19. It was likely in the community long before we had our first confirmed case in late January.

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/antibody-test-results-of-2-snohomish-county-residents-throw-into-question-timeline-of-coronaviruss-u-s-arrival/

I came down with an unusually strong cold in mid-January after some other people in my class sat near me while coughing away. Perhaps I should order a test for antibodies.

Had the same sentiment down here along with several other people.  There was some deaths in the Bay Area that confirmed that COVID-19 was in California at least by January if not sooner.  I'm still considering the antibody test but I don't know what it actually would prove this far after the fact.  Its not like I get a prize or something for antibodies, really there isn't much incentive given I still work from my office five days a week.

[Max Rockatansky]

Apparently a Blockbuster Video of all things has survived time, obsolescence, and pandemic only to start thriving:

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/world-last-blockbuster-overcame-netflix-170750841.html