COVID-19 How's everything going in your area?

[Christopher]

Well things sure have gotten a little crazy over the past few weeks. We have forum members all over the country/world. How are things going in your area? 

[Tam]

I'm being lazy and cut and paste my reply on Cany's post.   

In the town of Colorado where I live, so far we haven't seen much of the virus (3 confirmed cases only right now but that's probably going to change). People don't seem to be taking it very seriously, which scares me because that's how this thing spreads. The social distancing thing is being adhered to by some, not by others. All the schools (K-12) are closed, the colleges and universities are closed to people but open and running for "essential" personnel needed to teach and support online classes. It's been weird coming into a parking lot that only has 5 cars instead of the usual terror of a time finding somewhere to put your vehicle. Then, when I come out to go home, there might be one other car than mine.

Of course the people panic about the wrong things and panic buy everything out of the stores. I haven't even been able to get bird seed for the past three weeks. What's up with that? Also haven't seen one roll of toilet paper in that time, either. Because I believe in having back ups and back ups of back ups for everything in my life... we've been okay and living off of stuff I have on hand and restocking where I can a little at a time.

Tomorrow is a day off, the college is totally closed and we've all been told not to work from home so I'm taking a much needed rest and maybe take my dogs to the park for a little outside time.

Everybody stay safe and healthy! Don't forget to wash your hands!!! 

[Squid]

Personally, it's almost business as usual for me. I work for a government contractor deemed essential. Everyone that puts what we make together is still working. Almost all of the support staff, engineers, planning, and anyone else that doesn't need to physically touch the product to do their job has been given a laptop and told to work from home. The people that are at work range from those that seem to think it is inevitable, and they are going to get it anyway and have not changed habits at all to those that you can't even talk to because if you get closer than 15 feet or so they start yelling to not get too close. One in particular gets nearly hysterical if someone walks in the room she works in, it's approx 20X60 feet and there are 6 others that work in the room, well spaced out.

All schools, colleges, barbers, etc have been closed. The schools until mid April at least. Auto mechanics, grocery stores, liquor stores (yup), auto parts stores, construction and contractors and a few others have been deemed essential and are able to be open. Small businesses that can be run by one person are allowed to stay open, but must limit the number of customers inside at one time. A couple car garages have closed but not many. Restaurants are take out only no eating in, fast food and coffee shops are drive thru only. The local roads are mostly empty of cars. A few, apparently family, groups of 3 or 4 walking together, way more than usual. I travel I-90 to work and there is slightly less traffic, more trucks, but still a lot of out of state cars.

[cany]

Places closing down here its not good most car dealerships shut down  Im still working though

[FXRich]

I haven't been to town in a week and a half, place  could be overrun with zombies for all I know. Out where I live people tend to stock up on stuff, normally we have 2 or 3 months worth of food in the freezer or on the shelf. We have no reason to go anywhere so are just staying home.

[cany]

3 hours ago, FXRich said:

I haven't been to town in a week and a half, place  could be overrun with zombies for all I know. Out where I live people tend to stock up on stuff, normally we have 2 or 3 months worth of food in the freezer or on the shelf. We have no reason to go anywhere so are just staying home.

Sounds nice

[Bebop]

I don’t even know what day or time it is....

I'm in Florida now.  It’s pretty much stay at home.  All but “essential” businesses are closed, schools and malls closed. But there are still a lot of people out and about.  Lots of masks.  It’s weird.  I personally am devistated.  I am a music teacher full time no more.  I’m building up an on-line business on the side.  My wife is lucky, she gets to work from home and it’s saving us.  There are a few reports of cases in my area but it’s mostly southeast, Miami area hit the hardest.  My new hobby is fishing.  There is a lot of time for that.  Most in my family are doing fine and can work from home.  We’ll all get thru this but it looks like another month at least.  I really feel for the families suffering thru this.  There are many not so lucky and deeply impacted by this.  Hang in there, folks. We’ll make it.  I don’t know a single person afflicted with the disease but bless them all. 

[VapeMama]

Here all but the essential businesses are closed. The hubby and I are both in health care so we are still working. I'm in long term care and it's getting quite challenging with all the new procedures and so on in place. We have been on total lockdown for 2 weeks now. No visitors in, no residents out, staff screening with temps and questionaires regarding respiratory health every day before clocking in.  We are all wearing masks when in contact with our residents, who are getting restless, bored and some are getting depressed at not seeing family in person for so long. Hubs works at one of the local hospitals. Most nights (he's on midnights) are slow. News reports say the surge hasn't hit us yet.

In our area we have approximately 50 cases and there have been 5 deaths in our county. with most of those being fragile healthwise before contracting the virus. Fortunately in our city, there have not been any deaths related to this.

Most people are abiding by the "shelter in place" order of the governor. Communities have stepped up their game in patrolling parks and so on to reduce the small groups that do gather. Restaurants are all carry-out or delivery at this point. We do grocery shopping for 2 weeks at a time and homebodies anyway!

 

 

 

 

 

[Christopher]

They just update the rules for our area today. No gatherings of any kind except those living under your household, no exceptions including religious gatherings. Everyone must wear face coverings now enforced by law enforcement (fines/jail time). Getting pretty wild out there. 

[Tam]

Thank you and your husband for your tireless service to the community, @VapeMama! My SO's father just moved into a memory care facility two weeks before the Governor called a lockdown for seniors. It's been hard to get him to understand why we're not around. To him, with late stage dementia, all he knows is that we don't come to visit him anymore. The staff have been so wonderful trying to facetime and Skype with him but without being able to see us in person he just doesn't get it that it's us and he can hardly hear us. He was given a wonderful birthday party last week that they recorded and sent to us. He turned 90 without family around. The good in all of this is that he's still healthy, the staff are working hard for all the residents - just like you do - and we really appreciate the special care you give. Stay safe and I hope your family stays healthy.

[Tam]

1 hour ago, Christopher said:

They just update the rules for our area today. No gatherings of any kind except those living under your household, no exceptions including religious gatherings. Everyone must wear face coverings now enforced by law enforcement (fines/jail time). Getting pretty wild out there. 

We just got the "use non-medical masks" whenever you go out order a few days ago, too. My SO was telling his boss that he's thankful I never throw anything away because a few years ago I purchased a box of 50 charcoal infused masks when there was a lot of flu going around. We had them on hand and now they've become very useful. I feel vindicated.  *sniffs*  

[cany]

Ive had enough of this

[Tam]

7 minutes ago, cany said:

Ive had enough of this

How so? Elaborate, please.   

[cany]

The corona lol so tired of dealing with worrying about it everyday

[FXRich]

18 hours ago, cany said:

The corona lol so tired of dealing with worrying about it everyday

I think its a matter of where you live more than anything else. I was talking to the neighbor a few days ago, she works at the hospital in town. She said they only have 2 people in the hospital that have the virus. The total for the county is 66 infections, and no deaths yet, she said most people in the area that have tested positive are  just staying at home and riding it out. Tomorrow we have to take the dog to the doggie beauty parlor (which is open) for a bath and haircut. I guess we will see how much of the town is shut down.

[cany]

14 hours ago, FXRich said:

I think its a matter of where you live more than anything else. I was talking to the neighbor a few days ago, she works at the hospital in town. She said they only have 2 people in the hospital that have the virus. The total for the county is 66 infections, and no deaths yet, she said most people in the area that have tested positive are  just staying at home and riding it out. Tomorrow we have to take the dog to the doggie beauty parlor (which is open) for a bath and haircut. I guess we will see how much of the town is shut down.

You guys are lucky its a mess here

[FXRich]

I figured I would do a update on my trip to town today. After dropping the dog off we had to kill some time. So we went to Bi- Mart, to the gas station, to the Chick-fil-A drive thru, the Dollar Store, and to the liquor store to pick up some internal disinfectant, then we picked the dog up and went home. We noticed that maybe 10% of the people had masks on, some cashiers had masks on some didn't.

For those that are curious, the town I'm referring to is Bend Oregon with a population of about 80,000 people, not a small town.

[Tam]

9 minutes ago, FXRich said:

We noticed that maybe 10% of the people had masks on, some cashiers had masks on some didn't.

For those that are curious, the town I'm referring to is Bend Oregon with a population of about 80,000 people, not a small town.

Bend has a low rate of people getting sick, is that why so many people don't wear masks? Also, did you? 

[FXRich]

I don't have a mask. We drove past the hospital today, they have a tent set up for drive thru testing. The only people there were the ones doing the testing, they looked bored. I don't know why the low rate of infection in Central Oregon. Two counties next to us are Crook county (which is a 10 minute drive from where I live) with 1 infection and Harney county with 0 infections. I was looking at a map found here  https://usafacts.org/visualizations/coronavirus-covid-19-spread-map/  and noticed there are 7 counties in Colorado with 0 infections. From what I have figured out places with a low population density have fewer cases if any at all.

[Tam]

How interesting. Thanks for the link. 

I'm glad you're in a place that's so low in infections. The county I live in has low numbers, too, but then it's also got very low testing done. When more testing was done, the numbers of people infected shot up. I have a feeling that, if/when more tests become available in our area, the numbers will increase.

[cany]

I live in the Corona capitol of the USA lol

[Tam]

 

[Squid]

Most people here are really starting to get tired of all things covid. Especially at work. The powers that be there made masks mandatory about 6 weeks ago after the cases started to drop in the area, and the official schedule for dealing with this is we will be wearing them until January at the minimum. The official wording includes having vaccinations started before we can ditch the masks. Don't get me wrong masks have their place, but most of us can stay 30 feet from other people 90% of the day, but they are mandating masks 100% of the time.

Out and about in public we are supposed to wear them "if social distancing is not an option", but the "mask police" start yelling at you if you are the only person besides them in a store parking lot and "you have the gall to not have your mask on", I was actually told that in the middle of a parking lot with no one else in sight and the person telling me was 10 plus yards away.

I am avoiding all but necessary weekly trips to the store for perishables, fruit, veggies, etc. just to avoid them. I have about run out of Vacation time from work, as I just have to get away some days.

Sorry for the whining rant, but it felt good to get it out.

[Tam]

Hey, rant away, if it helps keep some semblance of sanity.   

In Colorado we're at stage two of opening. At the college I work at we have to have masks whenever people are around (and keep 6 ft. social distancing). If we're alone in our office we can take them off, likewise, if we're alone outside or far away from others. Right now, the campus is still locked down. Faculty and staff have key cards that unlock the doors but we have to go to one central place at the beginning of each day we're on campus to get our temperatures taken and a short questionnaire about our health. Once we do that first thing, then we can come and go throughout the day without having to repeat the process. All other students and prospective students can only come on campus and into the buildings after making an appointment. Only 50% of employees are allowed on campus at the same time so I still work from home three of the five weekdays, having to go in only two days per week.

While I think the entire world is tired of masks and the hyper vigilance of social distancing and sanitizing anything that moves or doesn't, I'm enjoying the respite of not being around people, especially those who make a habit of wearing so much perfume/cologne/scented everything. Even if some do, with the masks I can't smell it and it doesn't tend to give me sinus infections. Trying to find the bright side of things. 

[cany]

Most stopped wearing masks here went into a 7/11 for the first time in a while one clerk and a few patrons not wearing masks I took mine right off I hate wearing them