What states are doing the right things?

[madteaparty]

My brother in law who lives in PA has to use same mask for 6+ patients a day. He’s a lucky one that he has a mask it seems. Took 10 days for my DH’s friend (Pittsburg, PA) to get results. 

11 minutes ago, DesertBlossom said:

My brother was tested for COVID last Tuesday I believe. He has still not heard results. He did go to the ER tonight because he can't breathe. He doesn't think he will be admitted. 

But according to the news our state has only tested about 500 people. Only 87 tests are still pending. Is it normal for the test to take nearly a week for results? To me it sounds like state numbers are only low because they haven't tested enough people. 

 

Edited March 23, 2020 by madteaparty

[desertflower]

26 minutes ago, DesertBlossom said:

My brother was tested for COVID last Tuesday I believe. He has still not heard results. He did go to the ER tonight because he can't breathe. He doesn't think he will be admitted. 

But according to the news our state has only tested about 500 people. Only 87 tests are still pending. Is it normal for the test to take nearly a week for results? To me it sounds like state numbers are only low because they haven't tested enough people. 

I am sorry to hear about your brother. I hope he feels better.

Was wondering if your brother had asthma? Or is he generally in good health?  I am trying to figure out how bad would it be for myself and my family when we get it. We don't have asthma. My son has allergies so is a little bit congested already. Thanks for any information. 

[DesertBlossom]

14 minutes ago, desertflower said:

I am sorry to hear about your brother. I hope he feels better.

Was wondering if your brother had asthma? Or is he generally in good health?  I am trying to figure out how bad would it be for myself and my family when we get it. We don't have asthma. My son has allergies so is a little bit congested already. Thanks for any information. 

He is getting admitted to the hospital after all. Chest xray shows he has pneumonia. But the doctor says the covid19 pneumonia displays differently than what his xrays show so it's probably not. 

He does not have asthma. I think he may take something for HBP but otherwise he is healthy. It seems like his family got more than their fair share of respiratory illnesses this winter though. They have been sick a lot.

[desertflower]

3 minutes ago, DesertBlossom said:

He is getting admitted to the hospital after all. Chest xray shows he has pneumonia. But the doctor says the covid19 pneumonia displays differently than what his xrays show so it's probably not. 

He does not have asthma. I think he may take something for HBP but otherwise he is healthy. It seems like his family got more than their fair share of respiratory illnesses this winter though. They have been sick a lot.

I am sorry that he has to be hospitalized, but glad that they have availability for him.

I will say a prayer for him. Glad it wasn't covid 19. That is so contagious. 

[gardenmom5]

while Washington's gov has been doing many of the right things (for a change) - seattlites may bring about a shelter in place directive because they won't social distance. (they've been crowding the beaches because "the weather's nice.)   

they need to listen to the Italian mayors:

 

[Carrie12345]

Compared to other states, I feel good about how PA is handling things (at the gov’t level.) I wish schools had been closed earlier. 

Ideally, I wish we had “closed” at least the eastern and northeastern borders. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know there isn’t enough enforcement for every single road that exists. But almost all of the ways in have tolls, so a lot could have been done to reduce the flow. We have a LOT of New Yorkers and New Jerseans here right now.  We had a lot more while resort/entertainment places were still open.  My next door neighbor is here right now, from NY, in his vacation home, and has been back and forth every weekend. I don’t know if he left last night.

My county had more than 30 cases as of yesterday’s report, and its first death. We have a total of 36 ICU beds that generally run at capacity.

[Carrie12345]

Adding a selfish vent on my state’s restrictions.
I’m really hoping dh can eventually get an exemption for work. Not because his business is essential, but because his office space is isolated. It’s in a country-like strip mall, a completely self-contained little box, and he’s the only employee. There are no in-person customers.
Unless/until he gets that exemption, the rest of my “stay home” family has to be quiet through hours and hours of conference calls in our small house. Of course we’ll do our best, and we’re lucky to do so. But I still want him to leave!
 

[Wheres Toto]

17 hours ago, HeighHo said:

Doing well here.  School system took it seriously, shut down when traveler spread was found.  Gov has coordinated with NJ and CT.  Gov is coordinating with religious leaders.  Too many did not take social distancing seriously and Gov took it up a level by shutting down nonessential businesses and sending govt workers home.  Seniors and those with underlying conditions have been asked to stay home.  Nonprofits and volunteers quickly organized food delivery to housebound people.  The Health Dept is doing its job. The pharmacies deliver and have drive up staffed.  

People that were telling me I was going overboard four days after school was closed for traveler spread are now, eleven days after social distancing was requested, social distancing and cleaning.  Took some education to change their thinking -- and for us, that's New Rochelle cluster and Fusco family experience

I've been impressed with Cuomo.   We mainly see his press conferences since all our networks are out of NYC.  I like that he's being firm but calm, that he is taking responsibility for the decisions being made.

I guess our governor is doing the right things but it almost feels like he's just riding along behind Cuomo.    That might just be a charisma/personality thing.  I am happy that the local states are working together to try and control things.   There is a lot of back and forth between NY, NJ, CT, PA, MD so working together seems like the best solution.   

Dh's company evidently is able to stay open as long as they limit the number of people there at a time.   For now dh is working from home but he'll be going in once he finishes some reports since then he'll have to do work in a lab.  

We have 3 cases in our town of 5000 people, about 119 in our county (population around 500,000) but that's with very little testing.  Probably only testing of those showing serious symptoms and going to the hospital.

[livetoread]

Someone asked awhile back about hospitalization numbers in Ohio after I questioned the 100k figure given by DeWine. Yesterday Ohio had 83 hospitalizations. That’s eleven days after he gave the 100k figure. Clearly numbers aren’t adding up. There is no way there were 100k cases eleven days ago and 83 hospitalizations now, if this virus is as toxic as initial numbers suggested. I firmly believe that Ohio, like almost everywhere else, is missing the vast majority of cases. There are way more asymptomatic carriers than we thought, and people who likely have it based on symptoms aren’t getting tested and counted because they aren’t sick enough to be hospitalized. There might very well even be lots of people hospitalized who aren’t being counted. But even with all that, either the 100k number was highly inflated or the virus is way less likely to make people sick enough for hospitalization than we thought. Other infectious disease specialists were putting the likely number for the entire US under 100k at the time he said that.

So I still conclude that it was much more likely there were maaaaybe 10k (even that seems high) eleven days ago in OH, and I still maintain it hurts your credibility to be that far out ahead of what others were saying at the time. 10k cases still gives you a “bad enough to need hospitalization rate” of .8% which is significantly less than the high of 20% one sees often quoted (which is looking now to be unlikely). Even giving allowance for the time it takes for cases to take a turn for the worst (two weeks or so) and doubling the hospitalization rate for those 10k gives you 1.6%.

However, I agree with and support most of the measures he has taken and think he has done a good job so far. Just because I think he got too far out there with his numbers doesn’t mean I think this isn’t really serious.

[kbutton]

5 hours ago, Carrie12345 said:

Compared to other states, I feel good about how PA is handling things (at the gov’t level.) I wish schools had been closed earlier. 

Ideally, I wish we had “closed” at least the eastern and northeastern borders. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know there isn’t enough enforcement for every single road that exists. But almost all of the ways in have tolls, so a lot could have been done to reduce the flow.

The middle and western portions of the state that are rural have a lot of border crossings for everyday things like groceries. Even if their town has some small grocery stores, people are often driving 45 minutes to an hour to go to a Walmart, Sam's, or Target, or they are driving to work, including essential work. It's hard. I would feel the same way you do in more populated areas though! 

2 hours ago, livetoread said:

So I still conclude that it was much more likely there were maaaaybe 10k (even that seems high) eleven days ago in OH, and I still maintain it hurts your credibility to be that far out ahead of what others were saying at the time. 10k cases still gives you a “bad enough to need hospitalization rate” of .8% which is significantly less than the high of 20% one sees often quoted (which is looking now to be unlikely). Even giving allowance for the time it takes for cases to take a turn for the worst (two weeks or so) and doubling the hospitalization rate for those 10k gives you 1.6%.

I'm curious how incubation time will factor in. It would be really nice to think DeWine was a lot farther out than he needed to be--with my DH in healthcare, I feel like he's very vulnerable, and we're not far behind him. 

We have a lot of interstate traffic in our part of Ohio, and people were initially flouting orders or downplaying things, so if he was too aggressive, that's fine with me. It took time to ratchet things down to a level where people are being respectful of the orders.

[Carrie12345]

3 hours ago, kbutton said:

The middle and western portions of the state that are rural have a lot of border crossings for everyday things like groceries. Even if their town has some small grocery stores, people are often driving 45 minutes to an hour to go to a Walmart, Sam's, or Target, or they are driving to work, including essential work. It's hard. I would feel the same way you do in more populated areas though! 

By eastern/northeastern borders, I meant with NY and NJ, not towns or counties.  NYers and NJeans don’t need to drive into PA to get groceries, trust me.  I drive 30-45 minutes to get to those places, too.

[kbutton]

11 minutes ago, Carrie12345 said:

By eastern/northeastern borders, I meant with NY and NJ, not towns or counties.  NYers and NJeans don’t need to drive into PA to get groceries, trust me.  I drive 30-45 minutes to get to those places, too.

I am sure things are different where you are--more places to go to get things.

Where I am from, people's closest town, job, gas, groceries, etc. is often over the state line--some from NY to PA and some from PA to NY. There isn't a good place to go in their state without traveling a lot farther.