That’s the kind of reporting we’ve come to rely on these days but it’s a lot more meaningful to some than others.
That one day spike was from the area around Amarillo and the result of targeted testing that began the first week of May at meat packing plants, which are an essential industry. Given the timing, the workers that tested positive didn’t catch it at a hair salon.
https://www.texastribune.org/2020/05/16/700-new-coronavirus-cases-amarillo/
Give me a break.
Based on what I’ve read and seen there is no reason to not have reusable utensils plates etc. This virus hates heat. Once those things go through commercial dishwasher they are absolutely as safe as non reusable stuff. Why wouldn’t they be?
I could see not reusing menus, though.
DH and I each picked up a new project today. We are going to work as hard as we can and try to (finally) save some money now that the kids are out of college. I hope the work lasts.
I think there’s some chance that Illinois Governor Pritzker s order will be struck down…not based on the stupid ( in my view) religious liberty ground but on the state law limits on a governors power ( which is not a bad legal argument).
Agree though could also print more and reuse after a few days.
@maya54 I believe they want to reduce any unnecessary handling of dishes, utensils, etc at the restaurants by multiple people, and that is why they are using single use items.
@catahoula I am confused by what troubles you about the Texas Tribune story. The fact that there is a huge cluster in Amarillo is in the lede and the headline.
Don’t know about the other states, but I’ve been following Mississippi, since I have family there. They have been going back and researching deaths from earlier in the year, or those that occurred outside a hospital setting, to identify covid deaths. On the state website, they indicate how many of the day’s reported deaths are earlier deaths. So, for example, today shows 7 deaths, 2 of which are from May 5.
https://msdh.ms.gov/msdhsite/_static/14,0,420.html
Back on May 7th, I wrote…
And you can see the spike in the IHME chart for MS on or around that date, so they are counting all of those deaths as though they happened on May 6th or 7th, which is skewing the slope of the graph (obviously not the total deaths though).
eta: in any case, it’s still very small numbers, relative to many other states.
I’ve been tracking cases for our zip code and, today, the total number of cases since they started tracking decreased by one. I assume one of the previously recorded cases turned out not to be COVID-19. No new cases is encouraging.
Or the menus have to be scrubbed between uses, just like the dining tables.
The Tribune article is one I found after reading the post below.
The headline for the Texas Tribune piece:
(If this is so subliminal only I can see it, please tell me.)
Momzilla2D, you have a far more favorable view of the Mississippi numbers than I do, as a resident of the state. Yes, deaths do get adjusted by a couple of days, but does not change the overall trajectory which is not encouraging.
For week of May 9-16, we had an 18.6% increase in cases, and 21% increase in deaths over the previous week. We also have at least one reported incident of the pediatric Kawasaki-like syndrome.
Oregon may join WI with a full opening as state judge rules Governor’s Emergency Orders “null and void.” (Plaintiffs claim and judge agreed that state law only allows the Gov to issue emergency orders for 28 days to give the Legislature time to act.)
I think that you can print very attractive good cardstock menus pretty cheaply nowadays in house. The upscale Maple and Ash prints personalized ones all the time. Menus are not a big deal.
The bigger deal with dining in an indoor restaurant is that if anyone else there is contagious, you may be exposed for as long as you are eating in the restaurant, even if the contagious person is more than six feet away, due to the air with virus droplets being contained in the enclosed space.
No doubt that one of the winners in these times in the local print shop. There are new signs everywhere. Kid graduating from 5th grade? Yard sign. Store reopening? Need new signs about the hours and the One Way aisles. Open, closed, exit, entrance signs all needed.
Why not print new menus every day? That way the prices can change too.
Also from the article:
“Texas has also seen a spike in deaths. It reported 33 new deaths on Saturday, bringing the three-day total to 147 — the worst three-day span so far, according to the Chronicle. On Thursday it reported 58 deaths, its highest single-day death toll.”
Deaths increasing has nothing to do with increased testing.
As to the meat packing plant outbreak - those people live and shop in and around Amarillo. The virus doesn’t just stay inside the plant and only infect employees. They go into stores, restaurants, barber shops and hair salons. They bring it home to their families, who go to other, possibly essential jobs, and go to shops in town.
@msjhop
I’m sure my view is influenced by the fact that my state has much higher numbers overall. While our numbers are decreasing, we had 1,042 new cases today and 65 deaths. And we’re starting to open beginning today.
And as I’ve mentioned before, I don’t think raw numbers of new cases and deaths are the best measures to be tracking. One, because of variations in reporting, such as the date issue in my prior post (and each state handles it differently). And two, because case counts will increase with increased testing.
I prefer to look at hospitalizations, relative to hospital capacity. And, on that measure, MS seems to have things well under control. Whereas, MA has well exceeded its available ICU beds. Hospitalization numbers don’t have the same issues as #cases and #deaths.
If you are going to look at case and death numbers, it helps to put them in some kind of context. Worldometer reports per capita numbers, but seems to be down at the moment. Another good measure that puts case counts in perspective is the % of positive cases to number of deaths. I am starting to see that number more widely reported.
According to statistica.com, Mississippi is 15th in the nation in Covid deaths per capita. While clearly better than your home state of Massachusetts (which is 4th), the rosy picture you present of the situation in Mississippi just does match the reality.