daily COVID sitrep where you are

[Nyte]

Current Ohio info.

Ohio COVID-19 data as of Tuesday, Aug. 3
New deaths of Ohioans: 38*
Deaths of Ohioans since start of the pandemic: 20,530
New and confirmed probable cases: 1,769
Total cases since start of the pandemic: 1,132,798
Current hospitalizations: 791
Cumulative hospitalizations: 62,129
Seven-day average PCR test positivity rate: 5.1%
People vaccinated with at least one dose: 5,789,597 or 49.53% of the population
People fully vaccinated: 5,401,419 or 46.21% of the population
* Death totals are reported only on Tuesdays and Fridays.

[Ever (Zombiepreparation)]

There also another COVID thread.
It is a COVID chat thread for opinions, discussions, alerts, gripes, information, holding forths, disagreements, challenges, differing points of view on what's really what.
It's feeling lonely. Go for it.



My COVID sitrep where I am:
Wednesday August 4, 2021
Kansas
my county

(14 day rolling average)
- ⬆⬆⬆ Average daily case count. 26.57
- ↘ Average positive rate. 4.5%
- ⬆⬆⬆ Current active cases. 487
- ↘ Current hospitalized. 7
- ↔ Total deceased 88
- ⬆⬆⬆ Incidence rate per 100,000. . . 309.25

I did a walking scan of my Krogers to see if the revised Kroger statement mentioned by flybynight might have gotten some tread yet here. Unclear. But thank you for it Krogers.

I also scanned to see if I could detect evidence of Supply chain breakdowns. Bounty Napkins are completely missing. A couple of places had large gaping holes. Overall though nothing necessarily noteworthy. Did get four more 2ltr bottles for water storage. Those ones I mentioned that come with Co²? That I'm enjoying with tea? Two birds with one stone.😊

It's been cooler these past couple of days so I've done a bit of walking and a lot of sitting and smiling outside. Pleasant.

A good balance to the anxiety of the coming relocation while the building does water damage (and now Lots of mold) clean-up and repair.

[Ever (Zombiepreparation)]

My COVID sitrep where I am:
Friday August 6, 2021
Kansas
my county

(14 day rolling average)
- ⬆ Average daily case count. 28.43
- ↘ Average positive rate. 3.8%
- ⬆⬆ Current active cases. 528
-  ↔ Current hospitalized. 7 (6 unvaccinated, 1 vaccinated)
- ↗ Total deceased 89 (a woman 85 or older)
(- Incidence rate per 100,000 was not in the tri-weekly report today)

A couple of things.

This report is put out by my county health department. Collected from multiple sources in the county. Instead of the often used 7 day rolling average we use a 14 day rolling average to better balance slow reporting various sources can run into.

Today's report omitted the incident rate per 100,000 people. This may be new, or maybe just a one-off.

Also, today's report breaks down hospitalizations in unvaccinated and vaccinated numbers. This is new though could be a one-off.

But didn't say if the latest recorded death (85+ range) was vac or unvac. 

Our county buildings are now mask mandated, both in public and private areas of operation.

I wonder who owns our public schools? County? State? I am not finding information on this. We have at least one county now with a school mask requirement.

[Ever (Zombiepreparation)]

Today our building went to mask required status. In a passing 30+ second conversation with building director "We could see it was coming, just didn't know when that threshold would be reached." Made me wonder if the trigger happened over the weekend. I know I was alerted today by a tenant that one of his dozen± visitors a week ago was symptomatic but hadn't yet clued to it. They and the rest of their music group spent several hours in a building common area playing & singing. Friends and tenants gathered around.

Our state rolling average of confirmed reported incident rate is now up to 10.2%. We're beginning to see some increase in testing sites being set up as this Delta wave gains steam in Kansas. 45.95% of Kansans are fully vaccinated. Partially 54.70%.

My own COVID sitrep where I am:
Monday August 9, 2021
Kansas
my county

(14 day rolling average)
- ↘ Average daily case count. 27.43
- ↘ Average positive rate. 3.4%
- ⬆⬆ Current active cases. 588
-  ⬆⬆⬆ Current hospitalized. 14 (9 unvaccinated, 4 vaccinated, 1 partially)
- ↔ Total deceased 89
(- Incidence rate per 100,000 was, again, not in the tri-weekly report today)
- county fully vaccinated rate is 57%. Partially is 64%.

[Ever (Zombiepreparation)]

Well my densely populated building's mask mandate is a bust. Even down to one tenant bringing in a half dozen guests today, way too many to fit in 455 ft² apartment, so they sat inside in the common area for several hours, with you guessed it... no masks. Interestingly, their arrival was just after our office closed.

I immediately went to Grainger Industrial Supply and ordered 50 OSHA approved N95 masks (without respirator valves) for this wave of the Delta variant.

Which is in addition to my six highly respected Livinguard masks I have been using during the original wild COVID then the Alpha variant waves. But which from my own research I'm now not even confident they will protect me from this Delta wave, especially during this mask mandate failure of a building I live in.

Plus six floors, in their turn in this Delta wave, will be relocated to the Radisson, where None of the employees use respiratory safety at all. So I predict it will be brought in that way too.

This is a furchtbar situation.

N95s it is then. They're supposed to arrive by Saturday.




My own COVID sitrep where I am:
Wednesday August 11, 2021
Kansas: fully vaccinated 46.07%, partially vac 54.89%
my county: fully vaccinated 57%, partially vac 64%

My county's 14 day rolling average:
- ↗ Average daily case count. 29.36
- ⬆ Average positive rate. 4.0%
- ⬆⬆ Current active cases. 652
-  ↗ Current hospitalized. 15
(since June 15th our hospital's COVID inpatients:
37 unvaccinated, 7 fully vaccinated, 2 partially)
- ↔ Total deceased 89
- ⬆⬆ Incidence rate per 100,000... 341.67

[MPMalloy]

Large uptick in Iowa cases.  Gov. Reynolds refuses to enact a mask mandate, leaving it up to 'whomever else'.

[PistolPete]

Both St Louis city and St Louis county are trending down after an uptick that started a couple weeks ago.
https://www.stlouis-mo.gov/covid-19/data/index.cfm
https://stlcorona.com/resources/covid-19-statistics/

For the last week I was travelling, most of the time in South Dakota.  Mask wearing was way less prevalent than in St Louis overall, and among the biker community (Sturgis rally is going on) masks were exceedingly rare.  Among the more general tourist population at places like Rushmore and the Crazy Horse monument, masking was more common, around 1/4 to 1/3 of people were masked depending on location.  In restaurants it was lower, less than 10% among patrons and staff.

Last year it was estimated 300,000 people attended the annual Sturgis motorcycle rally and the covid infection rates linked to it was lower than the general populace.  This year attendance is projected to be about double of last year, maybe even more.  (Estimates I have seen range from 500 - 700k)  It will be curious to see the results from this year regarding virus transmission.  If attendance hits 700,000, that means 1 out of every 500 Americans were in attendance.  That is some petri dish!

I know when they used to have sci-fi conventions many people complained of getting "con crud", or a random cold from being around so many strangers.  It'll be interesting to see if the Sturgis rally ends up being more of a vector this year than last year once it wraps up and the data comes out.

[Ever (Zombiepreparation)]

Friday August 13, 2021
Kansas: covid is  reported to be killing more people now than a year ago.

My county's 14 day rolling average:
- ⬆ Average daily case count. 33.36
- ⬆ Average positive rate. 4.4%
- ⬆⬆⬆ Current active cases. 752
-  ⬆ Current hospitalized. 17 (out of 24 ICU beds)
(since June 15th our hospital's COVID inpatients:
39 unvaccinated, 8 fully vaccinated, 3 partially)
- ↔ Total deceased 89
- ⬆⬆ Incidence rate per 100,000... 388.23

Public Health leaders have said they would start advocating for a countywide mask mandate if more than 50 new cases per day were being added in the community, using the 14-day moving average. Since Wednesday 102 new cases were confirmed.

The health department has also said it would begin recommending a countywide mask mandate if the number of active cases in the community topped 1,000. We have 752 cases currently active

[RoneKiln]

I'm seeing more people wear masks again.

I've not made any effort to look up local numbers, but a coworker has been keeping a close eye on it cause her partner is as extreme high risk as possible. She said it has nearly vanished from my county and we had one hospitilization in the previous week (we spoke Wednesday or Thursday). We also passed the 70% vaccination rate well over a month ago. So we're deep into herd immunity territory.

[Ever (Zombiepreparation)]

70%. Now there's a good sounding number.

And speaking of masks; my very first ever N95s arrived yesterday! And my covid sitrep today is about them.

I admit to being a bit disappointed in their appearance. 🙂  In Grainger.com there were just so many different companies to choose from and not clear enough pics for me to be clear on what I was seeing. It was obvious Granger Industrial Products wasn't a foo foo place. They expected you to know a thing or two about a thing or two if you were shopping through them... which I didn't.

I was going on a Rapter covid post on our previous home world about masks, OSHA, and particles, and other things that were only on the edge of my knowledge. But it seemed important to him so I made a mental note of it.

And what my sibling said, that it was like a cardiac workout trying to breathe in his so he tossed it.

hmm... looks like I'm headed for a step-by-step How I Got There so...

HEADS UP: This may be a long and boring post. My feelings won't be hurt in the least if anyone/everyone wants to skip reading it.

I'm just grateful to be able to talk about it, cause nobody in my real time is a prepper and/or knows or cares much about masks, much less N95s.

To continue.

Then Delta came along.

Everything I've been able to confirm has merit indicates Delta is a game changer in covid. So I'm taking Delta seriously. It's great that I'm fully vaccinated and possibly won't get it, or if I do it will probably be a lighter case, and if it isn't I possibly won't get Long Hauler and/or probably won't die from it.

On the other hand I'm also serious about the research I've been able to confirm that the viral load is much higher, and equal in both the infected unvaccinated & vaccinated. And if I got it I would be equally as contagious as the unvaxed to those around me before and after onset of symptoms.

My county numbers are currently climbing, my building and government buildings have implemented mask mandates. And my building is a landlocked cruise ship with an at risk population of people insisting on doing risky pandemic things anyplace I move around outside my cabin.

So my mind has been nagging me to look into N95s.

The straws that triggered me into taking action are three fold.
- A covid is over non-masker here is wearing an N95 her daughter mailed her and emphatically told her to wear it or else!
- A second covid is over tenant here, who has given me much grief for continuing to wear a mask, has had a come-to-glory change and is also sporting an N95.
- An epidemiologist and infectious disease researcher I pay attention to because he has active 45 years in this and only uses data, plus when new data is introduced that refudiates past data he updates. Plus when he doesn't have enough data he says so. And he's now saying Delta & N95s a Lot.

Now, I've been aware of the fake N95s flooding the market, and how would I know a real seller from a fake N95 seller?

The day I ordered mine he had spoken to that problem by recommending finding OSHA approved N95s. Which made me remember Rapter's post on OSHA approved N95s.

And he (the epidemiologist) recommended finding an industrial seller that only sells OSHA approved to get your N95s.

Which I did.

The sheer number of approved sellers there, and choices of masks was daunting. It was definitely a no frills serious place. But I soldiered through.

I knew I wanted one that didn't use the ear loops. And I kinda wanted one of those fold in half duck looking ones. With no respirator because if I get Delta, especially non-symptomatic Delta, the respirator would feed my own infection into the air.

I chose the double headband folding duck 'looking' one (from the not good pics, cause this was no frills selling).

It is a Honeywell H910 Plus NIOSH N95 TC-84A-8480. (as if I know what any of that means)

And held my breath hoping I chose well in my ignorance.

I had to buy in bulk for a pretty penny compared to my income, but the breakdown was around $2.50 each.

Now the test the epidemiologist said, was wearing it around someone smoking. If it fit and it was good I shouldn't be able to smell the smoke.

The package arrived, I put it on.... and drat, it wasn't a duck looking mask. Not cute at all. But oh well. The money's spent.

Now to test it.

Gooood seal. Amazingly comfortable. Breathes nicely.

Now for the smoke test so downstairs and outside I go to hang out with the smokers.

Dang! I could not smell the smoke. How about that.

Then I noticed our sister building (6 apartments) had a smokey grill going in the back so I sauntered over to meet them. (for the test) They were nice, inviting me to eat grilled chichen with them. It was tempting, but I didn't know them, there wasn't even a breeze to move the air, I had no idea if they were vaccinated, they had no masks, even laying around, (Why would they? They weren't expecting me 🌝 They didn't even know me) So I begged off saying I'd just eaten, but spent maybe 20 minutes laughing and talking with them, and their smoking grill.

And never smelled the smoke, much less the delicious looking chicken cooking on it.

This N95 mask is a winner!

And here's my sitrep:
No once, not even after being fully vaccinated for a week, have I felt this relaxed, at ease, comfortable being around and in comfortable conversations with so many tenants since this whole thing began in my part of the world back in February 2020!!

This mask, man oh man. Who'd a thunk it. I don't even give a rotund rodent's rectum it isn't a cute duck one I wanted!
<happy dance>

[sheddi]

Good work Ever!

I think you bought these:
https://www.grainger.com/product/HONEYWELL-Disposable-Flatfold-Respirator-60KN92

Here's the NIOSH listing (look about half-way down the page):
https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/npptl/topics/respirators/disp_part/n95list1-h.html

They're essentially the same as the DF300:
https://sps.honeywell.com/us/en/products/safety/respiratory-protection/disposable-respirators/df300-n95-flatfold-disposable-respirator

I'll post an update on the situation in the UK in a few hours - no spoilers, but it seems to have plateaued for now.

[sheddi]

Update from northern Hampshire, UK, Sunday Aug 15, 2021.

Family:
Everyone remains well and COVID-free. Home testing remains part of our routine, we're wearing masks when out and about and trying to keep our distance from everyone.

We paid a short visit to some relatives. They live in a touristy part of the UK and the area was full of summer vacationers (I guess we count as that, too). The vacationers seemed to have left COVID discipline at home; maybe 25% were masking and crowds weren't uncommon. We did what we could to avoid them but had to mix at times.

Local area:
The local case rate is 290 cases per 100k people, up 14.6% on the week but much lower than a month ago. Locally 86% of eligible adults have had one dose of vaccine and 75% have had two doses.

National:
The national case rate is 293 per 100k (up 4.9%), there have been 5500 hospital patients admitted in the past week (up 2%) and 635 COVID-related deaths (up 6%). Vaccination numbers seem to be plateauing; 89% of adults have now had at least one dose and 77% have had two.

There's clearly still a pandemic on but there seem to be enough people vaccinated that the effects (in terms of hospitalisations and deaths) are being reduced substantially on last year. We were at this sort of daily case rate in mid-December but deaths then were closer to 4000/week, not 600.

[Ever (Zombiepreparation)]

Continuity has been restored: Our ancestor, the ZombieSquad forum's 'archive' is now up and running. Our history of before we moved through space to our new homeworld, UFOZS, is intact.

Thank the Lords of Kobol.

There's @absinthe beginner as he-or-she begins tracking a mysterious Wuhan respiratory illness on January 4, 2020.  Followed within an hour by a second, now prophetic, post by @woodsghost saying:
"People like to talk about wars and such. This is the type of stuff I think can actually cause a world wide problem."

That post I will never forget.

Nor this one by @flybynight in our Signing off.... thread that gave me comfort:
"It is in our nature to survive. We hope for the best , but plan for the worst. It's EOTFAWKI. The INCH is shouldered. Boots are on and we're out the door.
But we are not refugees with no destination in mind except away. We have a BOL. https://ufozs.com/ . I'll see you all tomorrow in the clear light of morning there. We're (were) ZS, we got this".

The comfort that we would still carry on, and thrive, on our new home world.


And there's the Parent Thread of this one when a few of us began reporting the covid sitrep in our part of the 🌎. Which was like a lifeline to me at times when isolating for months during those waves when my family members succumbed or fell ill, my apartment neighbors succumbed or fell ill, my friends & one of my doctors began life with Long Hauler covid, my ZS/UFOZS friend and their family fell ill with it.

And when we began talking about the Delta variant that we had little idea of how dramatically it would take over the 🌎.

Our ancestral history to take with us as we make our own new history here.



I don't even think in coronavirus or covid anymore. I only think in Delta because it is so different, unpredictable, and breaking through our vaccines at a noteable confirmable rate. At a slow rate for serious cases and death but equally spread by cases asymptomatic & lightly symptomatic by both vaxed and unvaxed and the growing body of data on breakthrough case under reporting due to the mild and/or no symptoms inability to recognize it without those massive testing lines we used to have. (I can't find affordableto'me' test kits yet.) With troubling to others, and me, emerging data on Delta and Long Haul in both vaxed/unvaxed.

But Delta got me on the stick to finally buy N95s. 😄




So let's see what's happening today in my part of the world.

Wednesday August 18, 2021
Kansas

My county's 14 day rolling average:
- ↘ Average daily case count. 33.07
- ↘ Average positive rate. 4.2%
- ⬇ Current active cases. 682
-  ↔ Current hospitalized. 17 (out of 24 ICU beds)
(since June 15th our hospital's COVID inpatients:
49 unvaccinated, 10 fully vaccinated, 3 partially)
- ↗ Total deceased 90
- ↘ Incidence rate per 100,000... 384.90

Currently looking a bit better isn't it. Time will give the larger picture of course. Delta is doing these up, then quick(er), down swings than previous variants. Vaccination variable? Probably at least somewhat, though this same up-tick with a quick down-tic is being reported in primarily unvaccinated areas too. The notable bastions against previous covid with very low vaccination are reporting being breached with this one.

Delta really so new yet, and presenting so differently, that enough consistent data is only just now coming for beginning studies.

But cross fingers and all.



And our ZS historical archive is unlocked now so that gives my sitrep today some 🎉 and 🌝 with a couple of🎈🎈

[RoneKiln]

There's @absinthe beginner as he-or-she begins tracking a mysterious Wuhan respiratory illness on January 4, 2020.  Followed within an hour by a second, now prophetic, post by @woodsghost saying:
"People like to talk about wars and such. This is the type of stuff I think can actually cause a world wide problem."

Wow, I forgot Absinthe was the first to raise that alert. For some reaon I thought you had.

I double checked my areas numbers a few days ago. There was a very sensational headline about infection rate doubling, but doubling 2 dozen cases is still statistically irrelevent in an area of several hundred thousand (sucks for the people that have it though). No hospitalizations and no deaths.

[lurkedthere]

Delta really so new yet that data is only just now coming in enough for beginning studies.

Delta has been predominant in the UK for some months now. All the evidence points to the vaccines remaining effective. We had a massive spike in infections but bumps in hospitalisations and deaths.

[Ever (Zombiepreparation)]

Indeed. The UK's been the world leader in Delta data. Thanks UK!

There's @absinthe beginner as he-or-she begins tracking a mysterious Wuhan respiratory illness on January 4, 2020. 

Wow, I forgot Absinthe was the first to raise that alert. For some reason I thought you had.

Squeakiest wheel? I dove into confirmable and emerging medical data & research, as well as prepping for it as if my life in my situation depended on it. With less than three months to prepare for the probability of lockdown before it reached me and spurred on by family covid illness & loss really early on.

I needed all hands on board to help me get ready and ZS was who I turned to for How To and community.

[Vicarious_Lee]

School just started. Full capacity, no precautions. Our ICUs are full already, and school hasn't been in session two weeks yet. Children's hospitals ICUs are full. Trauma ICUs are full of COVID.

Remember how hyperbolically bad the media was reporting on COVID last year for some reason and now they're not?

Well it's twice as bad as it ever was last year, right now, and schools have been open less than two weeks.

My Bestie is making tons of money in a COVID ICU right now and she's not busy making Tik Tok vids. They have 2-3 cardiac arrests a day, and a respiratory rapid response called every 15 minutes or so.

She says that if you're over 35 years old, and your BMI is over 40, and you're not vaccinated, and you get delta covid, you are going to die this round.

[flybynight]

Lee, I've forgotten just where your area is?

[RoneKiln]

School just started. Full capacity, no precautions. Our ICUs are full already, and school hasn't been in session two weeks yet. Children's hospitals ICUs are full. Trauma ICUs are full of COVID.

Remember how hyperbolically bad the media was reporting on COVID last year for some reason and now they're not?

What is the normal load on your ICUs? I'm accustomed to ICUs being maxed out most weekends and all holiday weekends without COVID. So my scale of reference might be throwing off my understanding of this.

I'm seeing two extremes on reporting on the delta variant. One extreme is a deafening silence and "nothing to see here" attitude. On the other, hysterical "we're all going to die, the government must take complete control of every facet of our lives to save us!"

Then there's a bunch of angry people off to the side screaming "stop telling me what to do!" They don't ever actually talk about COVID though.

My area goes back into mask mandates again on Monday whether vaccinated or not.

[Vicarious_Lee]

Lee, I've forgotten just where your area is?

North Texas.

Schools are now begging kids to wear masks and distance again. They are not mandating them. This week, one school had both an anti-mask protest, and then a protest about the fact that there aren't more remote learning options. In the same week.

I for one will be masking and sanitizing my kids, but it's kind of a Pontius Pilate moment at this point. I'm just saying though it's way too late at this point, but I'm not gonna be contributing to the problem.