I have held steady with my position that all the protests will cause cases of CV19 to rise.
Just like I believe states which reopened without meeting the recommended metrics opened to early and cases would rise as a result.
And cases are all going up in those states, along with hospitalization in many of those state’s. along with % of positive cases increasing in those states.
How densely packed was this carnival?
https://www.aachener-zeitung.de/lokales/geilenkirchen/karnevalszug-durch-das-reich-der-kg-langbroeker-dicke-flaa_aid-24426143 shows a photo suggesting denser packing than many other outdoor situations (beaches, protests, etc.). Seems more comparable to some of the more popular parades (e.g. when the local sports team wins the championship) where people pack the sides of the street to get a better view.
According to the article it appears it was INDOORS.
“15 February, a merry crowd wearing clown wigs and jester hats gathered IN the town hall of Gangelt, a small western German municipality nestled by the Dutch border, to ring in the peak of the carnival season.
Beer and wine flowed aplenty as approximately 350 adults in fancy dress locked arms on long wooden benches and swayed to the rhythm of music provided by a live band.”
Attended my son’s high school graduation yesterday in rural Maryland. 969 total cases and 52 total deaths in our county in the last 3 months. Over half of those deaths in the early stages in our nursing homes. Most of those 969 cases long since recovered. County population 260,000.
Was extremely disappointed in the lack of a true graduation. Yep, I’m probably being selfish. With the recent riots and protests everywhere I cannot fathom why a socially distanced controlled attendance graduation couldn’t happen on their football field. Easily enough space to spread graduates and attendies out.
Sadly he got a 3 minute window to graduate individually, walk across a stage, pick up a diploma off of a table and pose for a few pictures. 3 minutes from walking in the building to walking out. Three days to graduate his whole class, individually. No attempt to do more. Sad in my.mind, yes I’m feeling selfish.
No recognition of accomplishments in front of schoolmates. No public acknowledgement. No big moment.
Sad.
I will continue to not understand why there are groups that are allowed to congregate and others that are banned.
Oh my gosh!! The over the mouth but not the nose thing gets me!!!
@MarylandJOE I’m sorry the graduation was underwhelming and not what it should have been. Congratulations to your son, though. I hope his future college graduation will be the exact opposite.
The issue is keep your “assault-style” weapons away from a peaceful protest, it really detracts from the message…
Thank you for the good wishes! I try to be pretty careful in the gym when I am close to others. But I am just not that worried about getting COVID.
The risks seem pretty low for my cohort (early 50s male, a bit overweight but no co morbidities), assuming I actually contract the disease. I don’t care about discomfort, only about permanent damage or death, estimated by me at less than 0.5% cumulative probability, perhaps substantially less.
Good way to make protests safer - stop tear gassing protesters, especially those doing so peacefully. Yes, it’s happening.
I can understand being disappointed but it’s a high school graduation. I do not equate that to protesting about human rights and racial equality, however. Those high school students will live without a graduation. Many targets of an abuse of power within our police departments haven’t been so fortunate.
Those protesters in MI were able to exercise their rights as well. My issue with them was the stupidity of their protest not their exercising of it. And no need to bring their guns. There is zero connection to the pandemic and the 2nd amendment. That was just man-child flexing, IMO.
This is happening in Maine. I get the motivation - a good chunk of the economy depends on tourism. Unfortunately, I don’t think anything will be enforced or checked up on. It will become purely theater and a state with a low rate of Covid-19, especially in parts of the state outside the very southern tier, infection will likely see an increase.
https://www.pressherald.com/2020/06/08/mills-to-release-proposal-on-tourism-as-pandemic-continues/
Maine eases quarantine rule for visitors as virus testing expands
Gov. Janet Mills on Monday announced an alternative to her 14-day quarantine mandate for out-of-state visitors, a decision she said is possible because of expanded testing capacity both in Maine and in the home states of many tourists.
Mills said that beginning July 1 out-of-state visitors will not have to comply with the quarantine if they have tested negative for COVID-19 within 72 hours of arriving in Maine. Visitors from nearby Vermont and New Hampshire, which both have low case counts like Maine, will be exempt entirely as of Friday, meaning they can come to the state without abiding by the quarantine and without a negative test.
VITAL SIGNS
New COVID-19 cases: 18
Total cases: 2,588
New deaths: 0
Total deaths: 99
Current hospitalizations: 37
ICU beds: 398 total, 198 available
Ventilators: 319 total, 232 available
Alternative ventilators: 441 total and available
The governor’s softening of her quarantine requirement comes after weeks of discussing alternatives, during which she faced mounting pressure from those who felt keeping the mandate would cripple Maine’s tourism season. Her shift hopes to balance real economic concerns about Maine’s tourism industry with keeping the state’s vulnerable population safe amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“There’s no question that the COVID-19 pandemic has loomed large over our tourism industry,” Mills said during a news conference Monday. “We’re trying to save the lives and livelihood of Maine people.”
However, the easing of restrictions did little to placate the tourism industry, with one official saying Mills’ loosening doesn’t go far enough to help the state’s struggling businesses.
“Each day that goes by without a workable solution is another day losing business we will never see again,” Maine Tourism Association CEO Tony Cameron said.
Before the news conference, Mills’ administration also announced, in partnership with Westbrook-based Idexx, the creation of a new mobile testing laboratory in Augusta that by next month will allow the state to process an additional 25,000 tests per week – quadrupling current capacity. This builds on a partnership between the state and Idexx that was announced last month.
In addition to the new mobile testing lab, DHHS will develop 20 “swab and send” sites across Maine to allow people to be tested as close to their homes as possible. This adds to the nearly 40 current testing sites already available to the public.
Finally, DHHS issued a standing order Monday that allows most people in Maine with elevated risk to get a COVID-19 test without a separate order from their health care provider. The hope is that people who might be at risk – including health care workers and first responders, seasonal and migrant farm workers, people experiencing homelessness, visitors from other states with a higher prevalence of the virus, and others – seek testing…
Mills stressed that Maine’s expanded testing is not meant to serve out-of-state visitors. Those individuals, she said, are being asked to get tested in their home state.
Places of lodging, such as hotels and campgrounds, will be asking out-of-state visitors to sign certificates indicating that they tested negative. Those certificates will be held for compliance checks but not as part of an overall database, the governor said.
Asked how the new policy would be enforced, Mills said that if businesses are not asking patrons, they would be in violation of her executive order. Similarly, if out-of-state visitors refuse to sign a form indicating they have tested negative, they also would be in violation.
“We believe people will want to comply,” said Heather Johnson, commissioner of the Maine Department of Economic and Community Development.
In addition, the state said tourism-focused businesses will be conducting symptoms checks with patrons to help ensure people who might have developed symptoms can be kept from others.
Now that the tourism season has arrived in full, Mills said the state will increase signage on major roadways and at entrances to state parks reminding people of what is expected of them. She also said the state has begun offering financial incentives to municipalities – paid for with federal stimulus funds – to increase their public health prevention and education efforts.
When a person never tested for Covid eventually does test positive for antibodies, does the town/county/state then add them into the Covid case numbers?
Someone needs to tell Governor Mills that some of her hotels were renting to out of state visitors and “informed” them about the quarantine but did not enforce it. This was when no short term rentals were supposed to be happening in Maine.
And what about OOS folks who are traveling to Maine to see relatives in private homes, or those who own summer cottages? How will those be monitored?
I can’t imagine this Covid testing will be enforced consistently either.
For some kids, a high school graduation is the last one. I feel very sorry for them to have it cancelled.
Tomorrow I have to figure out two interactions.
One of my children is moving apartments. I have to drop off some things to help them, and also said I would help if social distanced and all masked. Any thoughts?
Also, another of my children wants to help out my sister by reading to his 5yo cousin outside on far apart lawn chairs, masked. Thoughts on this?
Moving son and cousin are not in our bubble (yet).
I’m sympathetic as well but on my pecking order of all the people I’m feeling sorry for, missing out on high school graduations doesn’t make my personal top 10 list. The reality is lots of people are making sacrifices this year - some of them really big and impactful - due to the pandemic.
Thank you very.much for your kind words. I too am hopeful that his college experience and eventual graduation will go off flawlessly and completely make up for all the missing high school senior moments.
I can maybe see that in some people’s minds. I can definitely see where looting and burning stores, destroying cars and other property and harming innocent people would certainly be a larger detractor from someone’s message though.
That is certainly true. For many this is a greater accomplishment and to deny them that celebration when others can gather is a real shame.
I loathe graduations. I find them such a hassle and so impersonal. Maybe because my kids and I all graduated from large high schools. Having to deal with traffic, parking, rules about seating and arrival, boring speeches and school choirs…and then 500 kids have their name called to go up on stage for more than an hour…never mind that they were held outside in pretty miserable weather…no thank you. I’m all for a celebratory meal and would be sad to have missed that. But the graduation itself? I would have been grateful to not have to go.
I am certainly not grateful to have not been able to go to my son’s originally planned graduation ceremony. I would gladly have sat outside in extreme heat with a mask and social distancing to have the opportunity to watch the real ceremony. Obviously many have different views.