In SoCal, all beaches are closed. So are the beach parking lots, the promenades and bike paths along the beach. All parks with trails are closed. Little neighborhood parks are open but there is police tape around the playgrounds.
That cover is great!
People would rush to leave NYC because they know if they get sick their hospitals are at the crisis point. If they went somewhere else, they would (perhaps) have less-crowded hospitals. And they would have first dibs if they got sick first.
My guess is these are for health care and other front line workers, not the general public. They are currently using 40 million per week in France.
Well, what’a “small#”? Someone on CC in NYC made sure to stockpile 100 N95 masks and tell us about it (along with a case of hand sanitizer). And they are comfortably cocooned in their highrise with no need to go out. THAT is selfish. Your keeping a small number because of health issues is not.
If that means Florida will finally get tests/test materials/tests processed in less than a week and gets considered in the discussion of how to allocate federal resources, that would be a reasonable price to pay.
…Yet hospitals and doctors around the state say they still don’t have nearly enough testing kits and can’t get the ones they have analyzed fast enough, echoing complaints from state health officials across the country. Health officials have completed 27,000 tests so far in Florida, while New York is doing more than 18,000 tests a day.
That lack of testing availability means the number of people infected in Florida is likely far higher than the 2,355 coronavirus cases counted by the Florida Department of Health as of Thursday. And it has left hospital administrators scrambling for more testing kits, buying their own laboratory equipment to process tests in house and pleading with people to stay home to slow the virus’ spread.
That makes sense, thanks for this perspective, MWolf.
^^^^You’re probably right. However, CDC is considering how to revise its recommendation vis-a-vis wearing face masks for the general public. Other western governments are probably contemplating similar moves. One of the major impediments is the availability of these masks. If France needs 1 billion masks just for their front line workers, how many do they need for their general population? And how many do we need for our general population, as well as the front line workers?
“ AUGUSTA, Maine (WABI) - The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention said Saturday that the number of coronavirus cases in the state has increased to 211.
That’s an increase from 168 cases reported on Friday. It’s the largest day-to-day increase in cases since the outbreak began in Maine.
Maine CDC Director Nirav Shah called the increase concerning.
Shah said the increase in cases is likely a result of increased testing and community transmission.
Cumberland County has the most cases of the virus, with 120. York County has the second most at 38 cases, according to the Maine CDC coronavirus website.
There is evidence of community transmission in both counties, Shah said.
Shah said Saturday that three-dozen health care workers are among the 211 people who have tested positive for the virus. Shah said this underscores the risks facing Maine’s health care workers.
Nearly 40 people have recovered from the virus, and 3,394 people have tested negative.
The state reported its first coronavirus-related death on Friday.
The individual was a man in his 80s from Cumberland County who had underlying medical conditions.
No other information about the man was released due to privacy laws.
Shah said Saturday that the backlog of tests has been reduced from 1,300 to 826 as of Friday.
Shah said the Maine CDC lab has received reagents needed to accelerate testing. The Maine CDC is also working with a commercial lab to reduce the backlog.”
Friends in NorCal took their 4 year old – who was going nuts at home – to play in a nearby playground. It wasn’t taped off. The fun didn’t last long… a police cruiser drove by and (nicely, politely) cops told them to leave the swings. Friends were actually grateful. Those cops made an impression on their daughter.
The ICU survival data from the UK is based on before the shed hit the fan really. It really should put into perspective how nonsensical this idea of focusing on vent production really is. The UK is already selective about who gets an ICU bed. It is very important to be prepared that there are going to be no actual options for a big part of the US population with comorbidities, that front loading ICU beds without strict triage is a problem already. Discussing this aloud in public might make people more considerate about their own safety.
More than 500 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Florida since Friday evening; total deaths now at 54.
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/489997-over-500-new-cases-in-florida
The Imperial College estimate for the US of 2.2 million was for if there were no lockdowns. There are lockdowns.
And let’s look at that 2000 deaths number. On Wednesday, the deaths were less than 1000, so we’re seeing a doubling rate of 3 days. Exponentials are ugly. At this rate, how many deaths will we have by Easter, 15 days from now? 2000 * 2^5 is 64,000. In two weeks. The very bad thing about this is, whatever that death number is, it’s baked in. Pretty much all the people who will die in the next two weeks are already infected.
How about a month from now? 2000*2^10 is over two million.
The virus is spreading everywhere. Hospitals are filling up in most metropolitan (and many rural) areas, and supplies are low. The resources, equipment and staff at some country hospital might not be where a NYer wants to be. That said, somewhere is better than nowhere.
Many yes, but all, no.
There may be concern about equipment being touched by multiple people being a vector of spread of virus. That would not normally be a problem with just walking, hiking, or running in an uncrowded park, or riding your own bicycle in an uncrowded area, or rowing or paddling your own boat in a large body of water, or surfing your own surfboard in the ocean.
But when people all decide to hike the same trail or go to the same beach and make it crowded (where keeping six feet away is difficult), that can be a problem in this context. (And then they close those trails or beaches, so everyone goes to other ones and makes them crowded, leading to those being closed…)
Let the people of New York judge how Gov. Cuomo is doing with respect to this pandemic. How the federal government does affect all Americans.
Actually because NYC is the epicenter of the virus with over 40K cases and New Yorkers are traveling, Governor Cuomo’s policies affect everyone.
Make no mistake about it - Cuomo is loving the national spotlight and campaigning every inch of the way. He has had his designs on the White House for quite some time.
It’s really easy to make a personal mask out of an old tshirt, with a pair of scissors and no sewing. You lay the tshirt out flat. Then you make two long, parallel cuts, about four or five inches apart, across the the chest, including the sleeves. You have just made the two layers of your mask. Now, cut narrow u-shaped cuts into each sleeve, starting from the hem of the sleeve, maybe eight inches deep, centered. These will make your ties. You’re done! Tie that mask on!
I made one of these, and also one of the woven cloth masks that people are sewing. I found the tshirt mask more comfortable, and it covered my face better.
Gives new meaning to good cop/bad cop. 
“Honey, you heard the policeman. We need to stay inside.”
Or just not touch the shared equipment?
In Wisconsin, parks are open, and the governor ordered that admission to all state parks be free. Playgrounds within parks are not supposed to be used. But, at least in my neighborhood park, the play equipment is not roped off; there are small signs saying it should not be used.