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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 11, 2020 23:17:05 GMT
I read an account of a person who is recovered but still having symptoms and one thing really resonated with me, he stated he had this feeling of being outside his body and still had waves of it still. The exact same thing I keep saying to my husband. It is the strangest feeling. That is awful, Mich, especially since you can't be sure about what is causing it. The staff told her there are now so many tests being performed in NYC that she may not receive her results for a week. That is so discouraging. On one hand: yay, we know whether or not you have it. On the other hand: too bad, you could be walking around with it for several days, possibly unknowingly infecting others. it is up to all of us to evaluate the situation and decide if we can skip something from time to time. True. When I go to the market I'm always offered hand sanitizer. I usually skip it because as soon as I touch money or any object in the market, my hands are unsanitized anyway.
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Post by htmb on Jul 11, 2020 23:33:12 GMT
The mayor of Atlanta, who has been battling the Georgia governor over all kinds of safety issues such as masks and levels of opening, was tested along with her family. Something happened and they didn’t get their results, so they were tested again and the second set of tests showed that she, her husband, and one of their three (?) children had the virus. I heard her speaking the other night and she was totally frustrated since even the second test results took days to get back. And because she and her family had no symptoms, they’d been around others during that time who had now been exposed unknowingly.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 12, 2020 1:05:55 GMT
Htmb, doesn't that just sum up the broken response to the virus in the US pretty much since they've known about it? Do you know if the mayor of any of her family had symptoms?
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Post by htmb on Jul 12, 2020 3:17:56 GMT
The mayor and her husband both have seasonal allergies. They felt nothing unusual at first, but then her husband began to feel extremely fatigued and was sleeping a lot more than usual. That was a few days ago when I heard her being interviewed right after they learned the diagnosis. I’m not sure how they’re doing now, but the last I’d heard the mayor had instituted mandatory masks in Atlanta and, I believe, she’d also taken the city back to phase 1, meaning only essential workers were allowed out. Apparently, cases are skyrocketing in Atlanta, but the Republican governor was fighting her mandates as being unenforceable. A few other Georgia cities such as Savannah were also defying the governor. Keep an eye out for the mayor. She’s rumored to be on Biden’s short list of running mates. Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 12, 2020 3:43:51 GMT
cases are skyrocketing in Atlanta, but the Republican governor was fighting her mandates as being unenforceable. A few other Georgia cities such as Savannah were also defying the governor. "Republican governor" -- a lot of syllables to say "creep". It's just insane that whether or not lives get saved is so politicized. And yes, I've been following Mayor Bottoms not only because she's being touted as a possible running mate, but because of her humanity in bucking Trump's evil stand on refugees, because of standing up to Gov. Kemp over his asinine, politically motivated, and deadly re-opening of the state, and because of what appears to be a sincere and reasoned response to the riots and violence in her city.
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Post by whatagain on Jul 12, 2020 5:50:20 GMT
Canceling holiday in september seems like a good idea. Everybody expects a second wave by then. Or october. Reasons are : less good weather, children at schools, and all the beachpartiers back from holiday. My daughter is back from Knokke on the seaside, she was appalled that nobody was wearing a mask. At the risk of infuriating some i heard on the radio that police had to be called to intervene, in Knokke, to calm down Dutch 'visitors' who refuse to comply to the rules and create chaos (a few guys, so limited chaos)...
Masks are now mandatory in all shops and museums, movietheaters etc. At least it obliges everybody to have a mask on them when traveling etc. Might remind some that Covid is far from gone.
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Post by bjd on Jul 12, 2020 6:24:11 GMT
I'm not convinced that the virus will come back more strongly with cooler weather since it doesn't seem to have disappeared with warm weather. Many of the places with the highest rates of infection right now are hot places.
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Post by onlyMark on Jul 12, 2020 6:42:38 GMT
K2, not painted the outside before but will be looking at the cost of pint for it tomorrow. "Easily applied" makes me chuckle. Bought some 'non-splatter easily applied one coat' paint a couple of weeks ago for our apartment in Germany. Worst paint I've ever used and seemed to be the opposite of everything advertised. When you consider our outside walls all have white render than isn't smooth, nothing is easily applied.
Tod, good luck with yours and we don't have any more seeds left but a friend in Zambia is bringing us some when she can get back.
On the way down to Spain from Germany we stayed four nights in hotels, one Germany, two in France and one in Spain. As we didn't know for sure when we'd be able to travel anyway we'd booked these a few days before we could. The first one we had booked at sent us an email at 11am on the day of arrival (which we didn't get as we didn't check our mails as neither of us has a data plan for the phones) saying they had decided to close but would transfer our booking to a sister hotel.
We thus turned up and all was locked up but it did have a notice directing enquiries to the other hotel. We went there and was checked in with no problems - so we looked at our emails and saw all of the four hotels had cancelled us but given us alternative accommodation - which in all cases turned out to be better class and in a better location for the same cost. We had no problems at all getting upgraded and even got free car parking in a couple where you'd normally have to pay. Each hotel had the same rules regarding sanitiser, distancing, mask wearing etc.
The only sense of disagreement I've had with the restrictions, or their effect, anywhere was one occasion in Germany in a shopping centre. There are a couple of elevators from the car park. Both are freight elevator size, ie. at least 3m by 3m. A man was waiting, a couple also behind him and we joined on at the back, all distancing. The elevator came, the man got on then turned round to stop anyone else getting on, holding his hands up until the doors closed. He said something to the couple who had moved forward and they indicated they could still distance as the lift was big enough, but the man refused to move. I then saw a sign at the side of the lift showing people in diagonal corners. Ok, fair enough, the man was being extra careful, but for me it was an excessive amount and making s meal of it.
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Post by tod2 on Jul 12, 2020 8:51:37 GMT
I'm lad you may be able to start some more trees Mark. Tonight we will be tuning in to what our President has to say. I doubt it will be good news Our infections are going up daily. The strange thing is I don't feel those awful panic feelings we had when we first went into lockdown - taking our temperatures three times a day, not venturing out even though we were allowed to go to the shops for food, and sanitising every item as we unpacked it. The virus is worse now than ever so why am I so calm?! Admittedly I stay home a lot but it only takes one wrong move to contract the bug. Kerouac, I would not touch a lift button with my bare finger - using a tissue or even removing your shoe if possible to take a stab at the button.
Bixa - I'm in agreement that as soon as you touch items in the supermarket you are exposing yourself to touching the virus, but I not only sanitise profusely upon entering, but spray the handle and inside of my shopping cart. That way I can't contaminate their goods and psychologically I feel like I have a 'super hero shield'. Come time to pay - I hand them already sanitised notes and as they give me change I grab their sanitiser and give it all a good spray. They have huge bottles of it at the till points as the cashier sanitisers all surfaces before the next customer puts down her goods. Sounds like overkill doesn't it?! Probably is but I feel at ease and try not to worry about the virus, which incidentally was found at that store - one of the aisle packers had Covid19 so the whole store shut for a cleanse. Up and running the next morning and I have been there since.
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Post by onlyMark on Jul 12, 2020 9:48:30 GMT
I think in Bangkok there are lifts with buttons at foot level.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jul 12, 2020 11:35:50 GMT
Kerouac, I would not touch a lift button with my bare finger In the hotel, there was a bottle of sanitizer next to the lift at ground level, and since you go straight to your room when you go upstairs and have to touch the door anyway to get it open, I can't see how the button would make any difference. You can wash your hands the moment you arrive in your room, so it is really just a matter of not sticking your fingers in your nose or your eyes for about 10 seconds. Obviously in a building with 50 or more floors, there can be additional complications.
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Post by bjd on Jul 12, 2020 15:07:04 GMT
I'm not convinced that the virus will come back more strongly with cooler weather since it doesn't seem to have disappeared with warm weather. Many of the places with the highest rates of infection right now are hot places. In some places with temperatures in the high nineties such as we're having in the south and are predicted to arrive next week over most of the US due to a "heat dome," more people are inside spreading. Yes, but what about hot countries with no air-conditioning? Things might be tough in Florida next winter too. I just talked to my sister who has been going to Florida every winter for 10 years now. She told me that they, as well as other people they know, have decided not to return this coming year, just because they don't want to take any chances. So quite a few people who rent to Canadians might be hard-pressed to find tenants.
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Post by casimira on Jul 12, 2020 15:13:46 GMT
Yes, what I had thought would happen and came as no surprise to me was NOLA and the surrounding areas going back to shutting down the bars. Why they thought that this wouldn't happen is beyond ignorance. They also mandated that masks be worn. Up until now, it was optional. Our governor who is a Democrat, if you want to get into the partisan divide on this topic, should know better but, apparently not. At this point with all the chatter about schools re-opening in just a month, I fear we are going to move into an apocalyptic phase of major proportions.
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Post by Kimby on Jul 12, 2020 15:30:41 GMT
Bixa said:
Umm, how is this different from not wearing a mask, bixa?
What YOU touch could give your germs (and the germs from what ELSE you’ve touched since you last sanitized your hands) to others.
I grab a disinfectant wipe on my way into the store and use it to open the cooler and freezer doors without touching those surfaces myself. This protects me AND others.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Jul 12, 2020 15:34:31 GMT
Well I vented my spleen answering a survey sent by the London School of Economics for folk currently in lockdown here. My main gripe is lack of co-operation between the government in Westminster and the local government. The Mayor has been bleating about lack of information...most of the testing here is done by a private company..they inform the person being tested of the result, but the results are then collated and sent to Westminster, the government publishes figures but not in a localised fashion...by region rather than the individual areas of the city. Leicester is a big place but the areas with high rates are quite concentrated...just a few bleeding out into the adjacent areas. The government basically just told the local council to lock down a fairly wide area...with no details. The NHS have also been testing, but that's mostly patients attending our hospitals, care homes etc...this has been shared with local government.
We were told in a roundabout way a few weeks ago that we in Leicester 'would not proceed to stage 4' non-essential shops, hairdressers, no travel outside the area, not meeting up with more people not of our own household, schools have closed again altho children of essential workers are still attending. Our son received a letter saying that he should go back to full shielding. Leicester businesses have, after much nagging from the Mayor, received some extra funding...but many won't recover.
Police have been stopping folk leaving the city on the four largest roads...not exactly road blocks but you need to have a damn good reason to leave. It's all very vague. Everything except food shops and pharmacies are still closed, takeaway restaurants have done a roaring trade but many businesses have been really pushed, they'd spent a fortune preparing to open up on 4th July and now it looks likely that we will remain in lockdown after the review of data on the 18th.
The only press briefing we've had on tv was by the culture secretary...an insipid young man with fervent hopes that allowing outdoor theatres and concerts to start up (with strict social distancing...and not in Leicester) will bring us all great joy. The public are desperate for information so we all watch the briefings, to be told nothing. The calm, reassuring presence of the chief science and medical officers havent been there.They answer questions (even daft ones) quite clearly and succinctly which gives us the impression that the grown ups are in charge...but clearly, they're not.
The chancellor has announced fabulous news to those folk who've lost their jobs, can't pay their rent or afford to feed their children...in August we can get 50% off a meal in restaurants participating in a government scheme...well woop-de-doo.
I'm sorry if I'm being very negative, I do feel like the politicians that we have atm are rather immature and unrealistic...they just don't understand the severity of the situation and have extremely simplistic, patronising ideas of how to solve our current crisis...
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 12, 2020 16:29:19 GMT
Kimby, when I say market, I'm not referring to a supermarket, but the market near my house, which is a great big enclosed area full of different stands selling different things. All of the produce is loose & selected by the customer. Other items (meat, dairy) are bagged up by the vendor & handed over. Anything we touch at any time could transfer germs, so washing hands frequently and not touching our faces is just general good advice. The chancellor has announced fabulous news to those folk who've lost their jobs, can't pay their rent or afford to feed their children...in August we can get 50% off a meal in restaurants participating in a government scheme...well woop-de-doo. I'm sorry if I'm being very negative, I do feel like the politicians that we have atm are rather immature and unrealistic...they just don't understand the severity of the situation and have extremely simplistic, patronising ideas of how to solve our current crisis... Not negative, Cheery, just perfectly describing the frustration and anger over the way politicians are playing games with people's lives in your country & in the US. It infuriates me that doctors & scientists are ignored or treated as cranky spoilsports by elements of the public, and that same public turns around and cheers when their feckless elected officials give them permission to go out and play. Given our lying idiotic governor and the mess Florida is in I wouldn't come here from anywhere either. Seems like traveling from Canada probably involves flying and many airlines are not restricting seating. Florida cracked the 15,000 case marker today, maybe beating out Texas for the #1 position. And there it is again, the population suffering because some venal politician was afraid that shutting down would lose him votes. Huckle, in this grotesque race, it looks as though Texas is vying to keep the lead. Here is the link to the article on Corpus Christi's woes, with the text in the Spoiler below. Really, you probably don't need to read this, as you're living through a similar scenario in Florida. {Spoiler}In Texas Beach City, Out-of-Towners Drove In an Outbreak
A month ago, Corpus Christi had hardly any cases of coronavirus and business was booming. Now it is struggling to contain one of the state’s fastest growing outbreaks. What happened?
By J. David Goodman July 11, 2020
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — As recently as early June, days went by with hardly anyone testing positive for the coronavirus. A single case one day. Three the next. Then zero. Zero. Zero.
Word spread that Corpus Christi, always a popular beachfront vacation spot for Texans from around the state, was a safe place to go. They didn’t even require masks indoors. It was an oasis from the virus.
“People in San Antonio, in Houston, Austin, even Dallas, knew that we had low caseload,” said Peter Zanoni, the city manager. “It was a nice getaway from the rules, the regulations, the doom and gloom.”
Now the city of 325,000 has one of the fastest-growing outbreaks in Texas, a state where new records for positive cases were set for four straight days last week, with nearly 11,000 recorded on Thursday. Corpus Christi has seen more cases per capita than Houston and a rapidly mounting death toll: of the 38 deaths recorded from the pandemic, 30 have come in July, including a baby less than 6 months old.
Local officials have been left scrambling to get ahead of an outbreak that went into overdrive without warning. As recently as June 15, the city had tallied 360 cases during the entirety of the outbreak; on Wednesday alone, there were 445.
The city’s two dozen contact tracers are so overwhelmed that they are no longer able to seek detailed information about each new infection. Hospital beds have filled at an alarming rate, prompting pleas for additional staffing.
The surge in cases forced local leaders, businesses and residents to grapple with the uncomfortable reality that the same out-of-towners who help the city thrive economically may have caused the outbreak. The feeling is less one of resentment than of frustration at a seemingly impossible dilemma.
“I never thought in my wildest dreams that I’d be telling tourists, ‘Don’t come to our beaches,’” said Mayor Joe McComb, 72.
The speed of the spread is what struck researchers. Other vacation destinations have seen a rising number of cases, but the increase in Corpus Christi outstripped even much larger major urban centers, said Dr. Christopher Bird, a professor at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
“The part that’s different here is just how fast we rose in the number of cases and how fast it spread,” said Dr. Bird, who has been modeling the outbreak for officials.
The reason for the rapid spread in Corpus Christi is not certain. Data gathered from cellphones indicated that movement around the city returned to pre-pandemic levels by early June, especially at restaurants. “When I saw that, I knew it wasn’t a good sign,” Dr. Bird said.
Many pointed at the visitors from big cities.
“I think they should stay home,” said Jasmine Rodriguez, 24, a security guard at a La Michoacana grocery store. “There should be checkpoints and a mandatory stay-in-your-city.”
But some locals said they had no one but themselves to blame. People went to bars. They partied. They did not social distance or wear masks. The city did not require masks in most retail stores until last week, days before a statewide order.
“It’s us. Yeah, it’s us,” said Marilyn McCaleb, 62, speaking through a flower-print mask as she went grocery shopping at a local H-E-B store. “They don’t wear their masks — maybe they do now, because they have to.”
Whatever the reason, the virus was almost nowhere, and then, seemingly overnight, it was everywhere. Bars. Restaurants. Graduation celebrations. A draft party for a local baseball player picked up by a major league team. A chance encounter on the beach.
“I know because they would say to the contact tracers, oh, I was at the beach and some girls from San Antonio told us at the end of the night that they had Covid,” said Annette Rodriguez, the public health director for Corpus Christi and the surrounding county. “And we shared a bottle.”
The county attorney tested positive, as did many city workers. At one point, 10 percent of the firefighters in the city were out sick or quarantining because of possible exposure. At City Hall, staffers who were back in the office after months of working from home in the spring were told to return to remote work. Officials instituted a beach curfew and barred cars from the sands over the July 4 holiday.
The contrast with even a few weeks ago could not be more stark.
At first, city officials had been able to jump on and contain what few small outbreaks there were: at a meat processing plant, or a halfway house. Officials tested aggressively and got those who were exposed to isolate. They felt confident in their approach.
Corpus Christi is a politically split and culturally mixed town, with a Democratic county leader, a conservative mayor and a population that is majority Hispanic.
“It’s not even purple. It’s more like lavender,” said Barbara Canales, the top executive for Nueces County, which includes Corpus Christi. “We’re much more interested in our own backyard than in the national scene.”
Last month, the city stood out as an example of a place that had suffered economically from pandemic-related shutdowns — with unemployment at nearly 16 percent in early June — without actually experiencing much of a viral outbreak at all. Few residents knew anyone who had gotten sick.
Not only was tourism devastated, but another major industry in the city — its massive port for oil and gas exports — suffered from declining demand and plunging oil prices.
Then, as Texas reopened beginning on May 1, Texans began flocking to Corpus. It started on Memorial Day weekend and did not stop for weeks.
“The entire city was completely sold out. Every hotel. Every short-term rental,” said Brett Oetting, the head of the Corpus Christi tourism bureau. “What happened during the entire month of June: every weekend was a Memorial Day weekend.”
Hotels, restaurants and bars that had been starved for life surged back. But some business owners grew wary of the number of people suddenly flooding into town.
“It was horrible — it was so busy,” said Brigitte Kazenmayer, 59, the owner of the popular breakfast spot JB’s German Bakery & Cafe. “People didn’t wear masks. They didn’t understand the six feet.”
Ms. Kazenmayer, who immigrated from Germany and fell in love with Corpus Christi, said that in June the lines would snake out the door and across the parking lot. “They came from Houston, Austin, San Antonio — and I think, why are you here? You bring it here!” she said of the virus. “But they like the beach. That’s why I’m here, too.”
The Bait Bucket, a cinder-block box of a store painted bright yellow, saw so many customers in June that they had to add a second sales person to deal with the crowds, said Miriam Longoria, 21, who worked behind the counter.
The store attracts both locals and tourists, and people kept coming, she said, even after the governor ordered bars to close in late June and other places in town began slowing down.
“This is the one thing you can do, is fish,” said Jeff Soward, 56, holding up a white plastic bag of dead shrimp he had just bought inside. He said he knew several people who had been infected: a 72-year-old business partner in Mexico; the children of several friends; his daughter’s boyfriend in Dallas.
“The kids I know that got it, they’re fine,” he observed.
But dealing with the outbreak has strained medical resources in a city where officials said nearly one in five residents does not have health insurance. Hospitals have stopped performing elective surgeries and are paying overtime to keep up.
“The coast is not clear,” Ms. Canales said during a daily news briefing this week. “It is not clear to come to at this time.”
Still, people come, albeit in smaller numbers. The beaches are open. And the surf is inviting.
But now it is the visitors from other parts of Texas who are wary of being around people in Corpus Christi.
At an R.V. campsite just a few steps from the beach, Billy Arocha, 34, prepared to grill as his three children played in a sprinkler. Mr. Arocha, from outside San Antonio, said he had considered canceling the trip when he saw the cases exploding in Corpus Christi. “I’m scared,” he said, adding an expletive for emphasis.
When they were planning their stay, Mr. Arocha said he considered going out to eat in a restaurant, “but not anymore.” He said he was not talking to anyone in town and only going to the beach when it was uncrowded.
The vacation had been meant as a much-needed break, and a way to celebrate his wife’s birthday. But the mood had darkened over their festivities.
“We just got a call that her aunt is close to dying from the coronavirus,” he said. “That virus is something else.”
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Post by kerouac2 on Jul 12, 2020 16:49:43 GMT
Meanwhile in France, most of the regions are offering gift card incentives to French visitors, from 50 to 200 euros. They are valid in restaurants, hotels, museums, attractions, etc. And guess what -- they have proven themselves to be extremely popular.
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Post by lugg on Jul 12, 2020 18:18:07 GMT
I can quite understand your frustration Cheery. Its all quite scary here in Herefordshire at the moment. Well the workers may well be contained in the farm bubble now but they certainly were not prior to being tested positive. Not sure what will happen next - it all depends on where they were bussed to, to do their shopping I guess. Anyway on a positive note it appears most are not ill and have no symptoms, otherwise my NHS employer would have to start re-0deployment all over again. www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hereford-worcester-53381802
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Post by lagatta on Jul 12, 2020 22:25:02 GMT
Canadians would also hesitate to winter in Florida this year because we also have a public health system. As in the UK and elsewhere, we find much to criticise about it, but there is no such thing in the US except for the very limited Medicare and Medicaid.
And I certainly wish the best of health to Mayor Lance Bottoms and her family...
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Post by tod2 on Jul 13, 2020 8:21:02 GMT
Meantime…….down South, the South African President addressed the nation last night on TV. After waffling on for a while congratulating those of us who are taking this Covid thing seriously, showing admiration for the doctors and nurses who face the danger every minute they are helping patients, he suddenly came to the crunch. With immediate effect all alcohol sales everywhere were stopped in their tracks. No chance to nip out and stock up. It is disgusting to learn that alcohol has played a devastating blow to the health sector by violence, accidents etc., taking up hospital bed space and wasting doctor and nurses time. South Africans have a very poor record when it comes to booze. It is not unusual to have a drunk member of the family from a Friday night to Monday morning every week, every year. Of course what did I do?…..I rushed down to the wine cellar to see how long I'll last! .
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Post by kerouac2 on Jul 13, 2020 8:47:08 GMT
Just out of curiosity, tod, do you know anything about how Lesotho and Eswatini are doing in terms of Covid-19? Of course, Eswatini shares a border with Mozambique, so they would not be "trapped" by the South African situation like Lesotho is.
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Post by tod2 on Jul 13, 2020 12:53:13 GMT
Ramaphosa doesn't say much ever about our neighbours. I think the borders are still shut. First of all I had to google Eswatini - and see it is the new name for Swaziland. Why change it, the old name is so much better and leaves one in no doubt as to its whereabouts. Anyway, Looks like they have around 1,351 infections and 20 deaths. But I have no idea of the population size. At one time it was common knowledge that Swaziland was crawling with AIDS. Now Mozambique recorded 1,092 cases with 9 deaths and 340 recoveries . You can't really compare numbers as the populations are all different but we have 276,242 infections so far and are getting ready for much worse. People just won't listen to the WHO and stay away from each other or if you cannot at all times, at least wear a darn mask. Ramaphosa instructed all funerals to have no more than 50 people. So when you hear there are in excess of 1,000 in attendance you just put your hands in the air and give up. A lot is to blame on the Bantu culture over the years. Funerals are simply an excuse to kill a cow and immediately devour it there and then. Everyone is invited - same with weddings. Anyone, whether you know them or not can pitch. So you see, it's really free food on offer.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jul 13, 2020 15:20:36 GMT
I'm one of those strange people who never really worried about covid since I seem to have an abnormally well developed immune system (famous last words). However, I try to respect all of the rules to the best of my ability and definitely better than most. For example, I have noticed that in Paris mask wearing is pretty good Monday through Friday, but many people seem to think that the virus takes the weekend off and don't wear their masks on Saturday and Sunday. (Of course I also realise that during the week many people are going to work and need to take public transport where masks are obligatory, so that might explain why there are so many more of them.) But my first personal shock was when they totally isolated the nursing homes and there was absolutely no way to be in contact with the residents if they could not use telephones or the internet. I could not forget how disastrous that would have been for me if my mother had still been alive. I would have been frantic, not to mention the fact that about 20% of the residents in that particular nursing home died of covid-19 in just a two week period. Since my mother was already dead (it's been 3 years), that was not the main shock. I thought of all of the employees that I saw every day for ten years and how attached they were to the residents, even the difficult ones. And probably some of them got sick, too, and might even have died, but the articles did not mention that. Now with the situation in Florida, my memory has gone into rewind, back to the days when my parents lived there. I am sure that I would have been frantic about that, with the same impossibility of seeing them, and knowing how they behaved in their daily lives. My father would have worn a mask because he always followed rules (ex military) and my mother would have said it was a bunch of bullshit. Even though they didn't go out much, there would have been some trips to Winn Dixie, Publix and Walmart anyway. They were not particularly clean people and would have not really used sanitizer unless forced to do it, nor would they have washed their hands at home or cleaned their purchases... Thank god they are long dead, but I imagine that there are hundreds of thousands of other old people in Florida who are just like my parents were. Not everybody is as admirable as our Floridians htmb and huckle.
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Post by htmb on Jul 13, 2020 15:30:12 GMT
Old people? Who you calling old? You and I were born in the same year!
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 13, 2020 18:01:36 GMT
Medical workers in Oaxaca released a video on social media urging everyone to stay home and advising that not only are hospitals filled to capacity, but some of them lack supplies and sufficient personnel. They said to absolutely not go to the hospital except for a true emergency and to only leave the house when absolutely necessary. Sorry about the link, which has a copyright block so you can't copy it to paste into google translate. It is mostly statistics from each hospital about bed space and availability of ventilators. oaxaca.eluniversal.com.mx/sociedad/12-07-2020/medicos-piden-quedarse-en-casa-no-hay-ni-espacio-en-hospitales-ni-personal-para
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Post by bjd on Jul 13, 2020 18:21:48 GMT
Thinking about what Tod said, I just watched the news and they mentioned that in S Africa, there are 500 infections every hour! And that hospitals are at saturation point. Also that people were not really taking it seriously before.
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Post by lugg on Jul 13, 2020 18:29:13 GMT
But my first personal shock was when they totally isolated the nursing homes and there was absolutely no way to be in contact with the residents if they could not use telephones or the internet. I could not forget how disastrous that would have been for me if my mother had still been alive. I would have been frantic, not to mention the fact that about 20% of the residents in that particular nursing home died of covid-19 in just a two week period. Since my mother was already dead (it's been 3 years), that was not the main shock. I thought of all of the employees that I saw every day for ten years and how attached they were to the residents, even the difficult ones. And probably some of them got sick, too, and might even have died, but the articles did not mention that. That echoes the situation here ... fortunately my MIL is in a home with an absolute star of a manager who rules it with an iron fist. Consequently, so far , they have had no infections but we have not been able to visit for 3 months now. The home have helped her to facetime with us which has been a godsend.
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Post by htmb on Jul 13, 2020 18:55:51 GMT
Having a "star of a manager" and staff that will help with FaceTiming must be a major relief, but it must also be so difficult for you and similar families to not see their loved ones in person for three+ months. I can’t imagine. And how confusing for those elders who recognize family members, but who don’t understand why they’re not visiting. Heartbreaking.
I just came from my annual mammogram appointment at the regional medical center. This was the first time I’d been inside a building besides my own home in weeks. The staff seemed to have things under control as best they could. Technicians greeted patients at the main doors, checked temperatures and asked a short series of questions. "Have you been tested for the virus recently? Have you been around anyone who is sick? Do you feel sick?” Masks were required. In the sitting area chairs had been moved around so there was lots of space between waiting patients, and there were hand sanitizing stations on every wall. As a reminder to me that not everything is about the virus, I spoke with one woman who asked me the time. She was waiting to meet with the head radiologist and was on the brink of tears because the technician had seen something ominous on the woman’s mammogram. I felt so sorry for her.
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Post by questa on Jul 13, 2020 23:54:23 GMT
20% of the residents in that particular nursing home died of covid-19 in just a two week period. Since my mother was already dead Completely off topic (maybe a future one?) One of the things I like about Kerouac2 is his use of the D words...death, dying, died. No cover-up words which don't really mean what they say...'passed', passed over or away, gone to heaven etc. Back to subject...
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Post by mich64 on Jul 14, 2020 4:44:13 GMT
Our daily news conference from our Provincial Premier brought some surprising information, phase 3 begins this coming Friday. I am quite nervous as it seems most places that proceed into this phase have had to retreat weeks later as multiple spikes begin and become out of control. I also understand the need to try.
So On Friday Gyms open, movie theatres, inside restaurant dining, casinos, esthetician services and a few other businesses I can not remember at the moment. All will be limited seatings and must provide social distancing. After that press conference, our Mayor added masks to be worn in all public transit and to be worn inside public malls, grocery stores etc. I hope this will enable us to remain safe.
They also have increased groups to up to 100 people in outside situations and 50 people inside, social distance rules still apply and masks are suggested. I think this pertains to weddings or family gatherings. Funerals still limited to 30% room occupancy.
The Canada/U.S. border will also remain closed tourists until the end of August. Will be reviewed again at the end of August.
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