We just heard on the evening news that there are 1,287 NEW cases of COVID as of today, here locally.

Our State's total population as of last year was 2,097 million. I didn't copy the stats on how many are currently hospitalized. The newspaper said that there have been 1,186,181 negative tests, and 52,394 positive tests. I didn't copy down how many have died. Too depressing.

I guess no matter how much you play with the math, the virus must think there is still plenty of fresh meat in New Mexico. Add in 49 other States, and it has a veritable smorgasbord to chew its way through.

I guess the authorities were right when they said we could still be dancing to this tune in 2022.

Restaurants here have been taking advantage of the warm weather to use outdoor dining space for customers, but the weather is getting more brisk every day, and winter sets in next month.

The top item on my Bucket List for months has been to see Himself in the White House packing up and heading elsewhere. Since now, it is only a matter of time until that happens, I'll have to think of something else to put at the top of the list.

Travel is probably out, since cooties are everywhere.

Wait, didn't some VIP somewhere say with certainty that the virus would go away on November 4?

https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucelee/2020/11/06/covid-19-did-not-disappear-after-election-day-over-120000-new-coronavirus-infections-on-november-5/?sh=4557d92554d2

https://www.newsweek.com/us-cases-hit-new-daily-high-trump-jokes-media-reports-covid-will-stop-nov-4-1541912

My tiny town makes it's own water and we have our own sewage system. Months ago we became part of a project that monitors our waste water for covid. There are a LOT of people here that are asymptomatic.

We will continue to follow the strictest protocol we can.

Sorry, lack of sleep I guess.

It was such a weird phrase, even back 30 years ago, and stranger still that she didn’t use the euphemism until she was old.

It drove my mother crazy having her mother-in-law go on and on about having to make her water.

On the serious side, I think our community’s water system is doing the same but unlike the towns in the southern side of our state, they haven’t been releasing data AFAIK.

Tyson

I have been working from home for the last week, I'm glad to say, but one of my close colleagues, poor girl, discovered on Tuesday that her mother had COVID (her mother's VERY ill). She immediately got tested and was positive, starting symptoms on Thursday.

And so the wonder of the French Sécurité Sociale swung into action. As we work in a large and airy but nevertheless open-plan office, this made us all "contact cases". Within 4 hours, we all received text messages on our mobile phones enjoining us all to isolate, to go and get tested 7 days after our last contact with her and, in the meantime, take a certain number of precautions - the usual ones, but wearing a mask all the time at home and having to sleep alone are a pain ;-). We were also encouraged to download an offical anonymous tracker app based on Bluetooth which tells you if you are or have been in close proximity to someone known to have the virus.

As I was last in the office on October 30th, I went to get tested on Friday morning. I received the (thankfully negative) result Saturday midday by email. I was extremely impressed.

I wasn't too worried about the result because I always wear a mask, wash my hands all the time and rarely go out, particularly now I no longer have to take public transport (train+tram+train) for two forty minutes every day to go to work, which also meant wearing a mask eleven and a half hours a day...

Try to stay safe (if your employer allows you to, unlike mine ;-)

Tom in Paris

The numbers only show those tested. Many more people will refuse to be tested unless in hospitals. That is the sad part of this whole thing.

Vaccine will solve the problem next year.

About a third of the people I see in public aren’t wearing masks. I don’t think they’ll be in a hurry to get vaccinated.

catnip Wrote:
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> We just heard on the evening news that there are
> 1,287 NEW cases of COVID as of today, here
> locally.
>
> Our State's total population as of last year was
> 2,097 million. I didn't copy the stats on how many
> are currently hospitalized. The newspaper said
> that there have been 1,186,181 negative tests, and
> 52,394 positive tests. I didn't copy down how many
> have died. Too depressing.



As of this morning NM had 53,671 positive cases and 1,104 related deaths.

Here in B.C. (Canada) our daily record of new cases this past Thursday was 425. To that date we have had a total of 16, 550 cases (3389 still active) with 273 deaths. We divide our province up into health regions and in the one I'm in 268 of that 425 were here and 126 were in the neighbouring health region (so, yikes, close).

Before this, public health officials said that much of the transmission was occurring in close family/social groups and not so much in the general community. Now they say there is increasing community spread and so yesterday our public health officer has instituted stricter regulations to try and prevent spread.

There is now a 2-week order in place for people and businesses in these two health regions:

1. No social gatherings of any size outside of immediate households.

2. Essential travel only.

3. Workplaces and sites: Must conduct active screening of all on-site workers and ensure COVID safety precautions (masks, distancing, hygiene, vigilance in smaller areas such as break rooms, washrooms and kitchens).

4. Venues offering indoor group physical activities (i.e. rec centres, gyms, businesses offering such) must stop until safety plans are implemented and approved.

Many of the new cases recently have occurred in settings such as weddings, funerals and celebrations of life. Some people just couldn't bring themselves to restrict the number of attendees. So now it's a region-wide semi-lockdown. I was so afraid they were going to say no more shopping but so far that's still OK, although with similar restrictions. Many shops do limit the numbers of customers in store at any given time and many are expecting everyone to be wearing masks. They are mandatory on public transit. Highway signs now flash "Masks expected" (our health officer is reluctant to enforce the policy by using the word "mandatory").

We're enjoying the most beautiful autumn weather, crisp air, colourful leaves, bright sunshine so fortunately we can still get outside for fresh air and be safe - people are still sitting in parks visiting with friends (6 feet apart & masked up).

It's those small enclosed spaces that'll get you. And I think the health order to restrict gatherings in private homes is because they've concluded that while people may have good intentions it's very difficult to remember to distance when you're visiting friends and family and having a social event. Slips happen and then whoops, you've killed grandma. Tragic.

My point is that we're lucky here, even though having to endure quite a drastic public health order in these two zones. It's only for two weeks and hopefully that will get the numbers back down to a safer level. At a certain point, with not very high numbers, things start to go sour very quickly. That's what our health officer is trying to stave off. I think it's also wise to avoid making this a blanket order for the whole province when the bulk of the positives are contained within these two regions.

Here's hoping the two weeks of extra measures (and hopefully, widespread buy-in) will be successful in stomping out the spread. We don't want to head into winter with a huge caseload.

We sure share in the sorrow of other countries with less favourable outcomes to date and hope things turn around for everybody asap. Take care out there!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/08/2020 03:48PM by Nightingale.

These are sobering accounts from the posters above. Gloomy news for sure, Here in Utah it's pretty bad but our governor is passing the blame. He said that it's not being spread in our schools, the kids are getting it in after school activities. How he came to that conclusion is beyond me, but it's a very convenient conclusion to come to considering he doesn't want to disrupt the public school schedule or hurt some parents feelings and tell them to babysit their own kids for a while.

A friend told me the conspiracy from the establishment is that they don't want to close the schools because everyone is up to their necks in debt and can't afford to send one parent home to babysit the kids. The average American has less than $5000 in savings and the economy would tank, not to mention the real estate market. So the fibs continue, and most believe the drivel they are told.

Same area as you, Catnip, and was surprising to see numbers jump a couple weeks ago from 800 to over a thousand a day in the state.

Wife works at a community office that occasionally partners with a state entity and does testing...about a week ago, she reported that 70% (she isn't a trained medical professional, so who knows where this info comes from) were symptomatic. However, her place has done this a few times over the past several months and most were not.

It is concerning and not looking good. Brother-in-law in Mexico got it last week--went to a wedding with 300 family members and reportedly EVERYONE got it. They are all family and I can guess that they know. He ended up being hospitalized. He's got underlying issues, including type 2 diabetes (diagnosed a couple years ago) and hypertension. They've been performing dialysis, not sure why, and he's improving. But not after putting him on a ventilator. He's down to 80% oxygen now and again doing better but this is scary stuff. (His wife and kids got it, they never had issues.)



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/08/2020 06:47PM by txrancher.

I'm sorry to hear about your extended family, TXR.

Thank you. With all going on, only a couple of close family we know in all this time, amazingly, that have popped up with either infection or issues.

It was scary last week with him. Doctor said that if he doesn't try to fight it--and he's a pretty "give up kind of guy"--then he's going to lose, so it worried us. He's about my age (50) and hard to believe, I had to send $$ to cover some bills and although I'm a tightwad, I can't imagine any of our family dealing with potential death. I'm healthy and thank goodness it's not us so I didn't mind. Again, he's now doing better and we believe he will be OK. But having to be hospitalized? Ventilator? Doctor saying to make plans for him dying??

Friends went to Cancun a month ago, had fun time. My wife almost went with her girlfriends. All got it and the photos they sent showed why. One got pretty bad, but has recovered. Scary stuff.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/08/2020 08:07PM by txrancher.

And all the partiers out for Biden in the streets.... wait, what? covid doesn't spread among democrats. We are pacing fewer deaths this year than last so we have that going for us. My wife is in education where there are rules, rules rules. They have had several cases that required close contacts to go home. I have a business with multiple locations. no masks and no infections during the year. And yes, Several have gone to get tested.
You are a moron if Trump is the blame. The whole world is dealing with this. If Obama was president, we'd be dealing with the same thing. No better, and no worse. It is what it is.

downsouth Wrote:
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> You are a moron if Trump is the blame.

And you are a moron if you still support do-nothing-don't-care-have-no-plan-head-in-sand-Covid-denier Trump.

Downsouth is a covidfefe.

> We are pacing fewer deaths this
> year than last so we have that going for us.

A strange assertion, no? There were zero deaths in the US from COVID last year and we are approaching 250,000 this year.

So what are you talking about?

A vaccine will be in the pipeline soon. And an antiviral drug has been approved to treat difficult cases. The scientific community, on way or another, will find a way. I'd imagine 2021 will continue to be bumpy, but we'll get past this. (And my spouse is in .edu. Lots of rules indeed.)

And I'm so sick of hearing that it is a hoax. It isn't. A hoax didn't end the life of one my colleagues or a close relative of another. Not to mention the around quarter million Americans dead from this thing.

Let's not get overconfident. Yes, vaccine will be developed "soon". But it will take years before we can know if it is effective. And it can take even longer to know if it is safe (remember Phen-fen?). The same goes for non-vaccine treatments like anti-viral, acyclovir-type drugs. I know. I worked in clinical trials for eight years. It took at least ten years to develop a vaccine for Ebola. Polio took thirty years IIRC (of course, for polio first they had to figure out what a virus was). And COVID can mutate, somewhat like influenza. So yeah, COVID will be with us for a long, long time.

We're stick going to have to wear masks and practice social distancing until at least 2022. You can still infect other people even if you've been vaccinated.

Coronavirus doesn't kill as quickly as the 1918 influenza virus.

That virus swept though the human population like a forest fire and eventually burned itself out after killing off the most vulnerable. We're still dealing with it today in milder form.

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/influenza/

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/1918-influenza-pandemic-and-covid-19/



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/13/2020 08:54AM by anybody.