Exactly, The Guardian is misrepresenting the data to fit their narrative. LA County specifically said that the large increase was due to an increase in testing and catchup of large backlog in test processing/reporting. Thus, those latter cases are not new this week, they were ‘new’ weeks ago, and are just now being reported. Yes, that makes them legit cases, but they have nothing to do with opening up since LAC was closed down when the individuals were swabbed.
I am scheduled for covid antibody test for next Tuesday. It’s at LabCorp for only $10, no referral needed. I also schedule for my kids, i have to get a mask for my son before he goes. The kid hasn’t been out since March 14 when his school shut down.
10,000 new cases in one week in one county means cases are still spreading quite quickly. That is a big number for one week anywhere and means they were infected pretty recently.
It’s not going away. The warm weather isn’t making it go away. People’s behavior in the last three weeks - ish is why there are new cases. Well before the protests. Now, with the protests it is likely to get even worse.
People have become lax.
The virus has not gone anywhere.
I don’t understand why people are lying to themselves. That does not change anything. It does not make the virus go away.
New York is testing more than any other state (except Rhode Island last I heard.) Our cases are falling, pretty dramatically, too, not rising. We are testing many more people now than at the height of the crisis and yet our cases are still falling, not rising. And now our cases will undoubtably start to go up again because of the protests.
It’s not magic that brings the numbers down. It’s not wishful thinking that brings the numbers down, either.
@dietz199 I think many coastal counties have put those beach orders in place to prevent the masses of visitors from inland counties coming in for the day. As the inland temperatures heat up people want relief from the heat and want to head to the beach for the day. They can bring the virus in for the day with them. I can bet a lot of The same residents of the coastal counties who are saying it’s not right to close the beaches to leisure laying and sitting also want the county to not allow all the crowds of out of towners to be allowed to crowd the beaches and parking lots.
San Luis Obispo county banned hotels and vacation rentals from renting to out of county residents for several weeks. I’m not up to date on the order so not sure what the current policy is. They didn’t want the crowds from the Central Valley to possibly bring the virus into the county.
Ask which test they are running.
The percent positive in Los Angeles County, where half the California cases are, has not been what we’d like to see. They did a big ramp up in testing at the beginning of May. Since then testing numbers have been flat, and positivity rates have also been flat at around 6%.
Which test are they using? (e.g.Roche) because some of these labs are not telling you that and this makes the information almost pointless unless you know the context of the testing capabilities. I can only find on lab corps own site that no tests are FDA approved, if that is even relevant, I wasn’t sure whether the CDC or the FDA weighed in on these tests’ helpfulness.
@mom60 Regarding the beach closures - yes - it was done to keep Silicon Valley from coming to visit in droves. And, I actually support the closures. Plus, we’re enjoying the lower traffic and less stress.
I just find it karmically ironic that the ADA code is being used to challenge the legality of the closures. We have a big problem with ADA lawyers going after small businesses for minor infractions (your ramp is .05 degrees off the legal limit, you let the mom with the 3 year old use your restroom and it’s not ‘accessible’ to all so now we will sue you) thus forcing those businesses accept large financial burdens or face further legal action.
Regarding keeping non-locals away from the beach, the San Diego County health officer has also temporarily banned short term rentals, except for essential workers, but it’s not being enforced. The AirBNB next door to us, which last summer was not particularly popular, has been rented multiple times in the past few weeks to groups of people that are pretty clearly not of the same household. Given they all stayed only a night or two, I’m guessing they are from LA or somewhere nearby.
Our beaches have been open for exercise for several weeks now, and just recently opened for sitting, though you are only supposed to sit with members of your household. Parking lots remain closed. With many people not willing to fly this summer, I’m expecting a busy summer for short-term rentals, with folks just wanting a change of scenery if nothing else.
This thread moves too quickly for me to keep up. Whenever someone posts about cases going up, people say it’s because testing is increasing. I submit this:
"Between the lines: Improved testing can cause the number of confirmed cases in a particular state to rise, even if that state’s outbreak isn’t getting that much worse.
"At least in Texas, however, the spike in recorded cases does seem to reflect an actual increase in new infections — not just better testing.
"Testing in Texas increased by 36% over the past week, while the number of confirmed infections rose by 51%.
“Texas also saw an increase in the percentage of all coronavirus tests that came back positive. In a state where testing is improving and the underlying outbreak isn’t getting worse, you’d expect the share of positive tests to go down.”
We are moving to the yellow phase tomorrow which means certain things can open under certain conditions. I have seen a couple of places talk about having a UV wand to use to sterilize things.
I can’t find any reputable source that says they are safe or worthwhile to use. My dentist even sent out a message saying they are using a medical grade air purifier and UV light system.
Anyone know anything about this topic?
I read that as saying there were twice as many confirmed infections today as there were last week, which would be alarming but, happily, is not true. Still, case numbers are going up increasingly fast, and positivity is also going up. That is bad. That is not what we want to see.
Did you expect something different?
@emilybee asked if I expected new case numbers to start slowing down in Texas. Well, yeah, I did, or at least I hoped so, because they’re slowing down or staying flat in many states.
North Carolina and Arizona are states seeing pretty big jumps.
Yes, but now venues don’t have to refund bridal couples money if they decide to cancel. If it’s the couples choice, they will lose all of the money they’ve paid.
This is about business, not public health.
Staying flat isn’t good. Means the virus is still out there circulating around and re-opening means there are fewer measures in place now to bring the numbers down - so they will likely go up, too.
Too many states opened before the metrics were where they should have been to re-open safely and in addition to very, very, carefully. Skipping important steps was a big mistake.
From my in the business friends. Folks who had events scheduled in May, June July even early August have cancelled or postponed already…and did so before Ohio decided to have 300 person events. Those deposits have already been refunded.
Also, the reality…when social distancing is taken into consideration, the space needs to be much larger and able to accommodate tables spread 6 feet apart with few guests at eCh table. Someone who reserved a room for a wedding for 300 could very well find out that the room can now only accommodate 100 or less.
Did anyone think the virus was going to go away?
I thought the purpose of the shutdowns were to avoid overwhelming the hospital systems and ensure that every person who needed treatment could receive it.
Yes. The purpose was not for us to be locked up in our houses and backyards for the rest of the year. The virus is here. People will get sick. Most will recover just fine. Some will die. Some will have lasting effects. Most won’t.
People assess their own risk tolerance. Some will get sick even though they are quite careful. Some will travel, go to stores, go back to work etc and not get sick.
Life goes on. Some people will gleefully celebrate each increase in cases and shake their collective heads at the states which were foolish enough to try to strike a balance between public health needs, the economy and personal freedom.
“Whenever someone posts about cases going up, people say it’s because testing is increasing.”
Nope. Saying only that information about cases going up is meaningless WITHOUT information about IF testing amount has remained the same. Looking for relevant information is vitally important.