COVID-19 General Thread for Colorado Springs (Denver, Pueblo: appointed, pharmacies, law)

[hollyt00]

Thanks, DrFrog- I think the problem is that there's still a part of us that retains our desire to do in person school supply shopping. And by us I mean my husband. (he's always enjoyed school supply shopping)

Office Depot should be empty around 7pm, it always was when we went!

[Vision67]

El Paso County rolling back size of gatherings as coronavirus cases rise

https://gazette.com/news/el-paso-cou...15019ec17.html

"El Paso County will roll back the number of people allowed to gather indoors because of a steady increase of COVID-19 cases during the past several weeks.

Under the stricter public health guidelines, indoor gatherings will be restricted to 100 people starting Monday, down from the 175 permitted by state-granted variances. The new cap on indoor gatherings will be in effect for at least two weeks, officials said, at which time the rollback will be reevaluated. Houses of worship are exempt from the limit, a decision made based on the county's outbreak data, said Dr. Robin Johnson, medical director for the agency.

The state will continue to allow gatherings of up to 250 people outdoors because gathering outside is safer, Johnson said.

The announcement is a reversal from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment's statement on Wednesday that El Paso County's case numbers were declining and the community's mitigation efforts were succeeding. The state agency had cited a lower three-day average of new cases in recent days, as proof of the decline, despite weeks of data showing an increase.

On Friday, El Paso County was seeing 151 new cases per 100,000 residents on average over two weeks and on average 8% of residents tested are testing positive for the virus — both indicators of high transmission rates, according to the state. The two data points also exceed the limits for disease transmission set by the state that the city needed to maintain to keep its variances.

"This virus remains very active and very dangerous," Mayor John Suthers said Friday.

Suthers said the data shows the community needs to do more and take small reasonable steps like limiting large gatherings to avoid more drastic steps such as closing down shops and restaurants.

It is too soon to say whether the new limits on indoor gatherings would affect any businesses, or even result in their having to shut down, said Dirk Draper, president and CEO of the Colorado Springs Chamber & Economic Development Corp.

In addition to new limits on gatherings, city, state and county officials will be setting up a free drive-thru testing site to better gauge the spread of disease, Johnson said. But there is no timeline for when it will open, she said.

Local government officials and business representatives will also be advocating for more teleworking. Major employers in town have succeeding in transitioning most of their employees out of office settings including T. Rowe Price Investment Management and Lockheed Martin, Draper said.

"Please encourage your employees to telework to the maximum extent possible," he said.

Gov. Jared Polis contacted Colorado Springs leaders Thursday to review the adjustment to indoor gatherings before it was announced, a step local officials appreciated, El Paso County Commission Chairman Mark Waller said. "

So the churches are exempt?? WTF?

I guess the local authorities are too timid to confront reality.

[YoYoSpin]

None of these meeting size restrictions, or mask use rules can be effectively enforced. Local police are certainly not going to be raiding church services any time soon. Those who make the rules depend on the good will, and good sense of their neighbors and the general population. Unfortunately, there are some hard headed people who just don't like being told what to do. This whole situation is devolving into another example of unnecessary and dangerous "us-versus-them" thinking. Divisiveness in our country seems to be approaching critical mass as November 3 approaches.

[otowi]

It is true they cannot be enforced really, however they do make a difference. My gym before the mask mandate almost no one tried to wear one. When the mask mandate happened, they put signs up saying a mask was required to enter, and now everyone comes with one.

[coschristi]

So, my 24 year old daughter was at a BBQ place in Calhan last night. I THINK she said Carolina Que.

A young teen boy had a seizure. My daughter is an EMT & gave aid until the paramedics arrived. Got the call this morning he tested positive for COVID.

I'm a bit PO'd. The results don't come in overnight. I'm wondering if the kid had tested positive prior to the family going out to eat. Now she has to quarantine.

[beezle1]

Originally Posted by coschristi

So, my 24 year old daughter was at a BBQ place in Calhan last night. I THINK she said Carolina Que.

A young teen boy had a seizure. My daughter is an EMT & gave aid until the paramedics arrived. Got the call this morning he tested positive for COVID.

I'm a bit PO'd. The results don't come in overnight. I'm wondering if the kid had tested positive prior to the family going out to eat. Now she has to quarantine.

I sure hope the family didn't go out knowing the kid was positive, or even waiting on a test to come back. That is not cool. I hope your daughter does not come down with it.

[Vision67]

https://gazette.com/news/coronavirus...6d5f4d949.html

"The latest COVID-19 numbers in Colorado (Updated on August 15):

-52,838 cases, including 5,438 in El Paso County

-622,745 people tested

-1,896 deaths among cases, including 144 in El Paso County

-1,768 deaths due to COVID-19

-6,727 hospitalized

-541 outbreaks

The latest COVID-19 numbers in Colorado (Updated on August 14):

-52,538 cases, including 5,389 in El Paso County

-616,772 people tested

-1,888 deaths among cases, including 143 in El Paso County

-1,768 deaths due to COVID-19

-6,718 hospitalized

-540 outbreaks

- There are now 5,248,172 coronavirus cases in the U.S. and 167,092 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.

- There are over 21 million coronavirus cases in the world and nearly 763,000 deaths. In the U.S. there are more than 5.3 million cases and 168,396 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University. The U.S. accounts for more than a quarter of all cases in the world.

- Gov. Jared Polis on Friday extended an executive order requiring Coloradans to wear face coverings in indoor public places for another 30 days. Read more here.

- Colorado has 5.7 million people. Of those, 170 are hospitalized with COVID-19. We should be talking about having Broncos fans at home games. Then again, we'd have to move the goalposts, says Gazette sports columnist Paul Klee. Read more here.

- 3 Colorado Springs police officers from the Sand Creek Division test positive for COVID-19. More here.

- Three Monument employees, two in public works and a police officer, have tested positive for COVID-19, the third reported outbreak in the northern El Paso County town. Read more here.

In a sign of the times for the struggling hotel industry, the Cheyenne Mountain Resort in Colorado Springs has extended the temporary layoff of 65 employees. Read more here.

- Researchers have created a virus in the lab that infects cells and interacts with antibodies just like the COVID-19 virus, but lacks the ability to cause severe disease. This safer virus makes it possible for scientists who do not have access to high-level biosafety facilities to join the effort to find drugs or vaccines for COVID-19, according to Science Daily.

- Denver's Department of Public Safety isn't immune to budget cuts, despite rising crime. Read more here.

- The Democratic and Republican conventions will lack for crowds but not television coverage. Read more here.

- Denver residents will have another avenue for getting tested for COVID-19 with free tests that will be administered at the Center for African American Health at 3350 Hudson St. on Friday.

- Health officials are asking several hundred people who were tested Tuesday for the coronavirus at a testing site at The Citadel mall in Colorado Springs to get retested. Read more here.

- Joe Biden is calling for a nationwide protective mask mandate, citing health experts’ predictions that it could save 40,000 lives from coronavirus over the next three months.

- Colorado public health officials have revised their quarantine guidance for schools in ways that would send fewer children home and allow them to return to school more quickly — in situations where cold- or flu-like symptoms are unlikely to be COVID-19. Read more here."

[coschristi]

Originally Posted by coschristi

So, my 24 year old daughter was at a BBQ place in Calhan last night. I THINK she said Carolina Que.

A young teen boy had a seizure. My daughter is an EMT & gave aid until the paramedics arrived. Got the call this morning he tested positive for COVID.

I'm a bit PO'd. The results don't come in overnight. I'm wondering if the kid had tested positive prior to the family going out to eat. Now she has to quarantine.

Updating ... It was Rooster's in Peyton.

Originally Posted by beezle1

I sure hope the family didn't go out knowing the kid was positive, or even waiting on a test to come back. That is not cool. I hope your daughter does not come down with it.

Well her preliminary test came back negative last night! She needs another one in a week. Said she got saliva & urine on her hands, even though she washed up right away; there is a very strong chance of infection.

[alliance]

Originally Posted by coschristi

So, my 24 year old daughter was at a BBQ place in Calhan last night. I THINK she said Carolina Que.

A young teen boy had a seizure. My daughter is an EMT & gave aid until the paramedics arrived. Got the call this morning he tested positive for COVID.

I'm a bit PO'd. The results don't come in overnight. I'm wondering if the kid had tested positive prior to the family going out to eat. Now she has to quarantine.

Personally, I would actually prefer to get exposed and be positive, so I can get this over with and move on with life. Your daughter has probably already been exposed and fought it off at some point. For some reason there are still people who legitimately believe that we can hide from a freaking virus. And it’s even more silly considering not only the low chance of being actually sick, but that there is the fact that there is such a crazy low chance of being significantly ill within such a young age demographic.

I’m in my late 30s, a doctor, and frankly am tired of hiding from something that is inevitable anyway. Give me 2 weeks of being sick, then back to life. Might as well pull the bandaid and get it over with, instead of the slow death we chose. ****, there’s a great chance I’ve already “had it” and not known, like the majority of people who have been infected.

So tired of hiding. The physical side effects of the reaction, mostly mental, as well as the economic and social devastation we’ve embraced, are significantly worse than the disease itself.


Edit: I apologize for likely coming across as callous. Just being realistic about the situation. Society has gone into such a state of denial and unnecessary fear that it’s getting harder and harder to accept what we’ve done to ourselves in the name of “we didn’t screw up society for nothing.”

[dr.frog]

The problem is that for MANY people it's not just "2 weeks of being sick". It's dying, spending much longer than 2 weeks in a hospital or recovering at home, suffering potentially permanent organ damage, etc. Moreover if everybody just stopped taking precautions and went out to get infected deliberately, we'd have so many people being sick at once that our hospitals would be overwhelmed and businesses would have to shut down because too many employees and customers are sick and dying.

Yes, some people have no or mild symptoms. But for other people, this is a serious, deadly disease, and that's not just old folks or people with some other serious medical problem. Children and healthy young adults have died from this disease.

You may be tired of coronavirus, but it isn't tired of us yet, by a long shot.