Coronavirus

[Highlander]

When I am getting frustrated and hoping things open up sooner than later I read the odd story like this and it scares the s__t out of me.

https://theathletic.com/1813973/2020/05/15/i-thought-it-was-the-end-borje-salming-opens-up-about-the-scare-of-his-life/

 

[OldTimeHockey]

When I am getting frustrated and hoping things open up sooner than later I read the odd story like this and it scares the s__t out of me.

https://theathletic.com/1813973/2020/05/15/i-thought-it-was-the-end-borje-salming-opens-up-about-the-scare-of-his-life/

The secret is to wait for good news from any government around the world and then read CTV news the next day. Guaranteed every story is about the corona apocolypse

 

[Kin]

Watching the Bundesliga game right now. The empty stadium and hearing every word said on the pitch makes for a pretty eerie experience. Definitely think North American sports will either have to be on a delay or they'll have to make their peace with people hearing players swear.

 

[Kin]

https://www.businessinsider.com/spain-to-approve-basic-income-scheme-response-coroanvirus-outbreak-2020-5

So as I suspected, Spain's Basic Income plan isn't going to be universal but rather will be targeted at lower income people as effectively just an increase in social assistance. The wrinkle is that for people in lower income jobs they'll still get some part of the benefit so as not to discourage employment.

I think this is an idea that won't be going away.

 

[Kin]

British Columbia reported 2 new cases yesterday. Ontario announced 390 new cases today.

For anyone curious, Ontario does not have 195 times the population of BC.

 

[CarltonTheBear]

British Columbia reported 2 new cases yesterday. Ontario announced 390 new cases today.

For anyone curious, Ontario does not have 195 times the population of BC.

Man I was literally just looking at the daily numbers by province (here if anyone is interested).

It's nuts how much better their numbers are.

They also aren't even that much further ahead of us in terms of re-opening either.

 

[bustaheims]

This doesn't feel like a coincidence...

https://twitter.com/MaddowBlog/status/1262944783426899968

 

[herman]

Have there been anti-lockdown protests in BC?

 

[Highlander]

Have there been anti-lockdown protests in BC?

Yes Herman, I live in Vernon and there was a protest on Saturday, there have been protests around the province as well.  There are 4 reported cases of Covid in the entire Okanagan valley, it is next to non existent here.  People for the most part are practising social distancing, but most are not wearing masks (which pisses me off).  I wear masks in public as a sign of respect to others.  What we have to realize as things open up is we still have to be vigilant in our approach to limit a huge second wave. The last thing any of us wants is to go into lock down again.
They opened bars & restaurants yesterday, was a pleasure to have a pint out for a change.  The resto had half the tables it normally does and I thought did a very good job of social distancing.

Nik made a good point, about population and incidents.  I really think its about population density.  Outside of Vancouver and suburbs the rest of the province has smaller cities of around 40K, where in Ontario I would think that 90% of the population live in the Toronto and the Golden Horseshoe (and Ottawa). 

 

[CarltonTheBear]

Not sure how much non-local attention this received, but there's a retirement home here in Hamilton that got hit hard by Covid. All 63 residents tested positive, as well as 20 staff members. They had to evacuate the entire building this past Friday. And then as if this story couldn't get any worse one resident was actually left and forgotten about in the building until the following night.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/rosslyn-retirement-authority-inection-neglect-1.5576560

 

[Kin]

Nik made a good point, about population and incidents.  I really think its about population density.  Outside of Vancouver and suburbs the rest of the province has smaller cities of around 40K, where in Ontario I would think that 90% of the population live in the Toronto and the Golden Horseshoe (and Ottawa).

No. The Golden Horseshoe has a population of about 8 million. Ottawa about another million. The population of Ontario is 14 million and change. There isn't a meaningful difference in terms of what percentage of the population lives in the two largest cities in each province.

But regardless population density isn't an explanation. South Korea, Taiwan, etc...

 

[Kin]

Just to further expand on the problem with population density as an explanation, and because I read an article about this very subject the other day, the most densely populated city in the US is New York which obviously has been hit terribly hard by the virus. The second most densely populated city is San Francisco, which has done fairly well with the virus. Even within New York though the idea doesn't hold up. Manhattan, the most densely populated borough, has been less hard hit than Queens and The Bronx.

Both federally and provincially, Ontario has been let down. There should have been much more strict control of people coming back into the country, things should have shut down sooner and we needed better testing/tracing infrastructure. We still do.

 

[CarltonTheBear]

https://twitter.com/CBCQueensPark/status/1263481773771669504

 

[Kin]

Ontario wasn't ready for its reopening.

 

[Peter D.]

Ontario wasn't ready for its reopening.

Totally see things rolling back and shutting down again. 

 

[CarltonTheBear]

Ontario wasn't ready for its reopening.

Totally see things rolling back and shutting down again. 

441 new reported cases today. That's the highest number in 2 weeks.

 

[Kin]

Ontario wasn't ready for its reopening.

Totally see things rolling back and shutting down again. 

441 new reported cases today. That's the highest number in 2 weeks.

And that's with doing only 11,000 tests.

 

[WAYNEINIONA]

As long as the hospitals don't get swamped with new admissions I think they will just ride it out.

 

[Highlander]

As long as the hospitals don't get swamped with new admissions I think they will just ride it out.

Yes I believe that they will try not to re-introduce lockdown again. We saw in NYC that the Javits Center that none or hardly any of those beds were used in Wave 1, as well as the Navy medical ship being absent of cases.
Trump is taking a hard line on keeping people working, damn the torpedo's.  I don't think that Canada can spare another 30 billion on extending the Cerb program either.

In BC its strange because of the lack of new cases and the reports in the Interior of only 4 active cases.  Not enough people are wearing masks, which I do out of respect for others, but people are respecting the Social distancing rules and using hand sanitizers.  I have not noticed anyone at all sneezing or coughing in public, I am not sure if this is just because it is springtime and few cold or flu's are circulating.  It certainly feels like we are open again and my son is going back to work at his Chefs job at a prominent local Golf Club, although not everyone was re-hired due to the spacing of tables.

Its just to bad that the curve was not really flattened in Ontario or Quebec before the Phase steps of opening.

 

[OldTimeHockey]

Ontario wasn't ready for its reopening.

Totally see things rolling back and shutting down again. 

441 new reported cases today. That's the highest number in 2 weeks.

And that's with doing only 11,000 tests.

Yesterday's tests aren't today's results.

5,516 tests are still under investigation.

And I'm sorry, the uptick in cases has nothing to do with the retail stores opening Tuesday. Whether or not Ontario was ready is another discussion, but cases going up by 75 people isn't because stores opened 3 days ago.