UPDATE: WASHINGTON CO. REPORTING SEVEN CASES OF COVID-19
Update 3-29-20 10:40am: County Emergency Management Coordinator Bryan Rumke is reporting that Washington County now has 7 confirmed cases of Covid-19. No other details about the cases is being released.
Original Story:
Washington County now has confirmed six cases of Coronavirus.
County Emergency Management Coordinator Bryan Rumke says the local total of cases is six, as of 8:00 Saturday morning.
No details on this latest case have been released.
Of the previous five positive cases, county officials have confirmed the victims range from 40 to 92 years old. Ruemke said two of the COVID-19 positive individuals are in their 40s, one person is over the age of 60, and two are in their 80s and 90s. Durrenberger said two of the cases are currently hospitalized, the other three are at home under quarantine, and all confirmed cases so far are “likely from community spread”.
I’m no medical expert, but if 14 days is on the high side of the incubation period, why not shut down completely for 2 weeks to somewhat flatline this virus and identify the affected instead of dragging it out for many more months or even a year? If the economy is going to be dropping, I’d take a 2 week hit over a 6 month hit. I would think businesses could recover easier over a shorter time span of closure as well. However, this would entail very, very strict guidelines at even the essential businesses like grocery stores that has been mentioned many times.
I know people would go against this idea and it’s just thoughts in my head, but here it is for those at HEB or Walmart for example. Similar to the Supermarket Sweep game show in the 60s and 90s. It’s been recommended one person per household instead of families shopping so I will use that in the example. I will precursor it by saying the stores could maybe set appointments, but that could be extremely difficult. This would also encourage people to order online, curbside or delivery, but that seems to be jammed right now with many substitutions. Could maybe have a dedicated team of employees to shop first thing in the morning before doors open for curbside and have a strict pickup time since cold item storage space would be limited. This process would also probably upset the single or few item buyers and force them to the online ordering, but if it is necessary enough to have, the decision is yours on when you need to have it and the wait time you are willing to accept. Stores would come up with a number of people they will allow in the store at one time based on # of aisles at maybe 5 people per aisle. So 20 aisles would allow 100 folks in at a time. Next, map out the store and make a path that folks would follow when shopping and put a time estimate of in-store shopping. I’ll add to this later on. For the 20 aisle store, we’ll set a 1 hour limit at 3 minutes per aisle even if you need to shop it or not. To ensure the pace is kept, employees will be placed throughout working like course marshals at a golf course. I’ve had a few tell me to pick up my pace before. Haha. Once they work through the snake map, they funnel to checkouts. If you happened to miss an item, I’m sorry, but you’re SOL unless you want to get to the back of the line and wait again. When someone leaves, the next one can come in like the operations of a packed nightclub. Now the parking lot would have attendants parking cars based on the order of entry instead of random parking. They could work from one side to the other and start back over. While people wait in the cars, the attendant will supply a store map and a list of rationed items. Shoppers can review the store map to make sure they have their shopping list somewhat figured out to maximize their 3 minutes of time in the right aisle and if you needed 20 canned vegetables, you’ll need to reconsider if a limit of 8 is imposed. This could help with the stocking of shelves and an adequate supply daily. Even if an item isn’t rationed, the store has discretion in case someone decides to hoard 20 cases of laundry detergent for these two weeks. Based on this example, over a 8 AM to 8 PM store opening, 1200 people or more would be served. You’ll say that’s nowhere near enough, but I doubt folks would come back the next day or so which is hampering the social distancing initiatives we have been talking about and give them enough essentials over this 2 week shutdown. At 14 days, 16,800 people or more could be served per store. That’s more than the number of households in Washington County based on census data (12,381 from 2014-2018). Yes it would suck if you got stuck behind someone that used the entire hour time limit, but is the trip “essential” for you?
I believe that is the whole point of why some of these places need restrictions to stop the spread. If you think it’s a stupid idea, no need to berate it on here. Just offering solutions for essential businesses while limiting exposure to the masses. If HEB or Walmart utilizes it, I’ll know an anonymous recommendation benefitted many during this difficult time without any compensation required. All of us need to be making better decisions and this would almost force critical thinking of wants vs. needs.
Stay safe and healthy folks! You’re all my neighbor and we will make it through this pandemic!
Completely agree with you! “Common Sense” a term that is quickly becoming as extinct as the dinosaurs.
It’s times like this when we realize how poorly some parents prepared their children – never teaching them common sense, allowing them to fail, teaching them discipline, humility, REAL challenges, and sacrifice. This is why so many are needlessly panicking and hording supplies that are not actually in short supply – but just challenged in getting to the stores in time to keep up with the panicked crowds.
Like it or not, we are all in this together. We will prevail – together. Stop being so selfish and follow the mandates, common sense, and social distancing guidelines while we gain ground on treatments and cures for this horrible virus.
God Bless
If you are as fearful as the comments sound, wear a positive pressure suit. Can’t get your hands on on? Make one out of a garbage bag, duct tape, hose, and small fan box with filter.
This not even close to as bad as the Spanish Flu of 1918 and our procedures are even more draconian. People worked right through that without complaint or fear mongering in 1918. Those people had heart, courage, and understood needs/wants better.
I’m much more concerned about the soup lines and soup kitchens I’m seeing at the public schools (and we’re not even in a depression yet) and the additional $2,200,000,000,000 of debt, blood money that has been handed off to our children to pay for while the folks playing basketball in the park or playing on the beach get a check for $1200 that comes out of our children’s future. I’m going to put the check I get into a long term investment for my children out of spite, definitely not into comfort items. We had no right to do that, to take on more debt of that scale. Our grandparents didn’t put a monkey on our backs like that. Which leads me to conclude all of those whining about how sacrificing everything is worth stopping COVID-19 might possibly just be spoiled.
If you’re scared, wear a mask and gloves, practice good hygiene, keep your vulnerable (those over 60-65) locked down, inform the hospital they have two more weeks to get ready for a 5% load in respiratory illness and most importantly, get back to work and back to life. No matter what, COVID-19 was never to be contained I now realize since we are so globalized. With globalization, it will likely be worse next time.
If we want to be able to contain things like this in the future (and you truly care about the lives of the vulnerable and marginalized), we need to bring all manufacturing back to the US, increase our requirements for anything and everyone that comes across our borders. Work on our containment procedures and our medical stockage.
1) When “shelter in place” is enacted people panic.
2) Calls to suicide hotlines increase 300%
3) Domestic violence calls spike
4) There is now a treatment that has about a 99% success rate and has just been approved by the FDA – Malaria drug + a zpac – 5 – 6 days recovery timeline
5) Testing procedures are much faster now – latest one made by Abbott gives results in 5 minutes for positive, 13 minutes for negative
My daughter lives in Katy, ever since the “shelter in place” orders people are going crazy. Fights in Walmart, people being arrested, store being shut down. They are having problems getting milk for the kids, can usually only find it a gas station stores at a much higher cost than grocery stores. Be careful what you wish for!
The people fighting in stores are the same ppl you see causing problems on black friday etc.sad that grown ppl have to be told to wash their hands and store 2 weeks of food.This is told of ppl every darn year,after year by the government in case of weather conditions etc..if everyone took that responsibility the stores would not be like they are.VERY sad and Disturbing. Guarantee after this goes away,ppl will slack off again until next time,never learning…
If there IS a treatment with a 99% effective rate, then why do you suppose people are dying by the hundreds each day? 5 minute tests are great, if they exist, why does our local ER send the samples to Temple for results? I am a senior, “ shelter in place( enforced) makes me more comfortable. Panic is driven by selfishness and the faithless.
Point number 4 is not true. There is no treatment for COVID-19. The drug you mention is being tested on patients bit it has not been proven to be an effective treatment and saying so puts people at risk and spreads false information. The FDA green lit the testing of the drug, not is effective treatment.
Testing procedures are better than they were but not near what we need. It was just reported today that Houston is only able to conduct 250 tests per day. This is one of the country’s largest cities only testing 250 people per day. We have no idea how many people in Texas have this virus so our only weapon in keeping away from each other.
That all sounds so good, but what is the reality. Those tests are not available yet and definitely not in Washington County. Most Labs/hospitals in this country don’t even have Abbott machines to run the Abbott tests. Those drugs that are supposed to work so well are also not readily available. At present it is taking 24-36 hours to get test results.
The bottom line is stores should be shut down at this point. We should be ordering ONLINE ONLY! PUT THE PEOPLE FIRST!! Safety is more important than work at this point. Dead people cant work and its not worth it if we aren’t safe. Reduce everything to a minimum!! We have to get strict and quarantine people. It doesn’t matter if it violate their rights.. People need to be safe and that is all that matters at this point. The TOP didn’t do a good job at preparing people for this pandemic.
I’ve read this article twice–both the original and its update–trying to figure out what 70 people found to “like” about it.
When I read all of these comments on here about people whining and asking the government to do something and “shut it down” I interpret it as “please tell us what to do because we’re too stupid to know what’s best for us”. Be careful what you wish for because you’re probably not going to like what you get. How did you people ever become adults?
Ahhhhh!!!! This is the best comment yet!
To me those comments come across as “Tell everyone else what to do so I can do what I want”. They are very entitled and simple minded at best. It honestly makes me hurt for them and everyone else their comments affect.
Completely agree with you! “Common Sense” a term that is quickly becoming as extinct as the dinosaurs.
It’s times like this when we realize how poorly some parents prepared their children – never teaching them common sense, allowing them to fail, teaching them discipline, humility, REAL challenges, and sacrifice. This is why so many are needlessly panicking and hording supplies that are not actually in short supply – but just challenged in getting to the stores in time to keep up with the panicked crowds.
Like it or not, we are all in this together. We will prevail – together. Stop being so selfish and follow the mandates, common sense, and social distancing guidelines while we gain ground on treatments and cures for this horrible virus.
God Bless
Thank you X 1000!!!!! This is what I’m screaming to people! The precedents that are being set will only allow for MORE governmental control! I am not downplaying the severity of the situation, but asking the government to take “control” of our lives and make decisions for us is beyond dangerous!! The panic caused by all the shelter in place orders is leading people to travel even MORE to find necessary items and thus exposing more people to the virus. You shouldn’t have to be told to wash your hands, don’t touch your face, limit trips, etc….. like a toddler!!! Very dangerous what’s happening and I think these people screaming for shelter in place will also be the first ones screaming “Don’t tell me what to do” when’s it’s over and the government is still telling you…..
You have nailed it.
I hope the city and county commissioners read these comments and act before it’s too late.
Durenbuger are you listening? ??
What are essential services? Groceries, medical services and medications, gasoline to drive to grocery stores and medical appointments and (I know I’ll get negative feedback on this) home stores like Lowes. Why home stores? If there is a situation at home requiring repair, I want to fix it before it becomes an insurance claim. And lastly, religious services. I’m proud to see that a Cowboy Church of Brenham streams live on Sunday. In good times or bad, we still need God.
Liquor stores will always be on that list. The hospitals cannot handle that many in detox at once. Alcohol withdrawal can be fatal.
I just wish people from other counties would stay home! Heard from an “essential” worker that there’s people shopping here from all over… Houston, Pearland, etc. No wonder our shelves are empty!
And that’s probably where the virus came from that caused our community spread cases. Isn’t there anyone trying to connect the dots to see where those patients
could have all been—grocery store, banks, church, hardware store, etc……???
Well they are searching for items that they cant get near home,just like when we go shopping for xmas gifts in another city/county BC we cant find it here..WE are all guilty of it.Be kind ,ppl have families to feed also.the panicked buying will stop when ppl realize the food stores will not shut down..
Stop blaming Houston for everything!!! Your hear-say is “non-essential” to the narrative right now. The people here in this town like to blame Houston and Harris county for everything.
Crime – Houston
Grocery shortage – Houston
Weather – Houston
Paper cut – Houston
It is mind boggling really.
So did anybody besides me watch the White House briefing this evening? They are going to extend the social distancing till April 30 and all the doctor said this is very important. The doctors also stated that we have not reached the peak not even near the peak and it’s going to get bad so hopefully our Washington County leaders will instill the shelter in place as all the other counties around us have. It’s sad that leaders have to do this, but when you have people that don’t follow general guidelines it puts everybody else at risk. Washington County please issue the shelter in place.
Sadly the shelter in place in other counties etc are really not working,ppl seem to not abide by it.just be responsible in your actions,that’s all you can do..remember not only is is social distancing,washing hands etc are very important, BUT DONT TOUCH YOUR FACE! ( EYES,NOSE,MOUTH) this is also how the virus enters its “host” ( you). The virus needs a pathway into your body,that would be hands to face..
When the going gets tough, a persons true nature comes out. How about putting our neighbors first and money second, for a change? Without a healthy population, there is no prosperous economy. Greed will always be with us, our families won’t.
This is horrendous and local officials should be doing MORE to help stop the spread. I’m disappointed in everyone including Greg Abbott. PUT THE PEOPLE FIRST!!
Why are you mad at the Governor for? He ordered a shutdown on all of texas except for essential buisnesses,social distancing,bars,restaurants closed,except for take out..he put this order in effect last week.get mad at your local leaders,get mad at your community for not following the guidelines
People are not listening regardless what our judge will say ! We cannot shut down grocery stores!! How will you provide for your family??? Especially when so many peeps hogged all the supples !
Heb and Walmart if you need to close doors then have only order on line and make it to where ONE order online per week This will help all the greedy peeps from stocking up and share!!
The grocery stories are not going to shut down..stop with your panicking thoughts.NOWHEREin the world,italy,britian,Wuhan NY that have worse conditions did the food stores shut down.
Are any of the patients with covid-19 connected or related?
,its community spread,meaning no connection with others infected in some cases
Washington county still on the rise and nothing is being done! I guess y’all wanna see the numbers study go up,what is it gonna take for y’all to shut stuff down in Washington county? Are y’all waiting for someone to die? I’ll remember not to vote for y’all!!!!
What is it going to take? I’m shocked by county leaders who are failing to act in a proactive, responsible way… and by the number of citizens who won’t stay home to stop a pandemic. We all have the responsibility to assume we are infected, and to change our behavior to keep it from spreading. That’s what neighbors do for each other.
what if a business owner knowing keeps a business open when an employee was exposed? What do we do then? Lose our jobs by refusing to come to work? Because that’s what is happening. Shut it down!!! Everyone needs to be responsible and take precautionary measures or this is just going to keep going until more and more are sick or worse dead. Stupid stupid stupid ?
Call the CDC. They have a hotline for cases where this happens. And no, don’t go back to work. Your employer will be happy to know that the unemployment insurance checks you are about to start drawing are “disaster funds” paid by the state and do not come from his Employer Account – IF the reason given by his former employees for their loss of income and employment is “Covid-19”. Employers are also eligible for this same Disaster Unemployment assistance. You can check it out on the State Of North Carolina Unemployment website – just google it.
This should provide all the motivation he/she will need to do the right thing, since, clearly, having a soul did not.
The alternative? The unique fame and distinction that comes with being “that guy that owns that place” in a very, very small town after the world (because a story like this goes viral, who are we kidding?) finds out that you gladly put, not only every person who worked for you’s lives in danger, to make a few extra bucks, but also every person AND THEIR CHILDREN, who make your livelihood, and who probably constitute the population of every person you have ever known? Oh man. Let that sink in for a sec. You know what, Washington County? If it came down to who you might have better odds with, this cat or Covid-19?……..hmmmmmm
I might just take my chances with the virus, if I had a choice.
Meanwhile, some of our elected officials are traveling out of county to their vacation homes. Way to support your hometown citizens…
So you want distance, but not too much?
Are phones and internet down or something?
Homedepot and Lowes are still seeing 1000+ people a day. I sure Wal-mart is the same. As long as those doors are open people will shop there. I am currently employed at one of these stores and we are not allowed to where gloves or masks. Also we were told that we would not be shutting down. I am very nervous about this whole situation, I have daily contact with at least 200 people a day. We try to do the social distancing but customers seem to not care. It’s going to spread like wildfire in these stores.
Our family is praying for workers at these stores. We don’t go out to shop, but have heard that they are full. People, stay home! This isn’t Spring Break!
Same here I work in the central store hardware more people there need to be in the store at one time with them customers and the people that work in the store nothing being done I took 14 days off to make sure that I didn’t have it and I sure don’t want it
That is why the leaders in the County needs to shut it down. People are unnecessary being exposed.
It looks to me like a case for a law suit if an employee gets COVID 19 and their employer did not allow them to wear gloves and a mask.
THEN STAY AT HOME.. THAT IS THE MEANING OF TAKING CARE OF YOURSELF.. IF YOU FEEL SAFER BY STAYING AT HOME AND NOT GOING TO WORK, THEN DO IT.
Sadly they are not complying by the CDC guidelines
Thank you for your service working. I know with plumbing repairs needed we were thankful Lowe’s was open.
They need to go by the CDC guidelines,call the number given by the governor to report them,your name etc stays anonymous.
Washington County needs to completely shut down for 30 days. Essentials businesses that needs to be open are hospital, EMS, police/fire departments. The groceries and gas stations on selects days. Businesses not essential to help fighting Covid 19 should be closed. We need to stop the community spread .
If you have grocery stores open only on select days, everybody and there dog are going to be shopping on those days, also they will be cleaned out in no time.
All non essential buisnesses should be closed as ordered by the Governor last week for the whole state of Texas.stop panicking on food stores, they will not close down..EVERYONE and ESSENTIAL businesses should be going by the CDC guidelines, social distancing etc.
In Pitt County, essential businesses are being defined as those that sustain and support life – as well as those that specifically serve the needs of first responders and healthcare workers. Grocery stores must be open every day because store-hour rationing causes panic buying and hoarding. Also, there is no way to determine when a person can or cannot buy their food, therefore they must be able to supply themselves with fresh, healthy food choices as often as possible. The same for pharmacies. Restaurant dining rooms are closed – only take out or delivery is available, at the discretion of the establishment. Gas stations are essential services. Period. The schools are all doing online classes and delivering meals twice a day on a bus route or at pick-up spots at the school. Trips to the doctor’s office, grocery store, pharmacy, and exercise are fine. No groups over ten. Even church. If you’ve seen somebody sick with this, especially someone over the age of 70, you know God is cool with it. It isn’t a nice way to die and it isn’t fast. But it does spread like wildfire, and plenty of people in your town have it right now and won’t ever know, but they will give it to a BUNCH of other folks. The official numbers here won’t show it because we “don’t have enough tests” but there are a few studies coming out of Colorado and the papers published in the medical journals from South Korea and China are showing large numbers of asymptomatic transmissions. That just means people who caught the virus but never showed any symptoms. Their bodies fought it off. Right now, the only way you can get tested here in the U.S. is if you are in such a progressed state of the virus that you are about to be admitted to the hospital. If you don’t have a fever over 101, they tell you not to even come to the doctor, no matter how much you are coughing. I can attest to this because it happened to my family. There is no way to gauge how many the true “positive” number is, but it IS larger than the one you see reported anywhere.
Are the counties two elderly virus cases being hospitalized here or in Bryan / College Station? Does our local hospital have an isolation ICU? Are they doing complete tests here or are they sent off? It would be nice if our hospital administrator would be interviewed for the next KWHI update. Thank you.
I do not believe the Brenham hospital has a Director anymore. They are managed from College Station. I do know tests are being done in Brenham and sent to Temple for results.
Does anyone know about how long it takes to get results once tested? I’ve read some tests in Texas are taking 7-10 days to get results.
Baylor Scott and White has said 16 hours.
There is now a test with results in 5 minutes
From Business Insider:
Abbott Laboratories announced Friday that the FDA approved the emergency use of its new Abbott ID NOW COVID-19 test, which can deliver positive test results for the novel coronavirus in five minutes and negative results in 13.
The test — which is the size of a small toaster — is compact enough that it can be used in any health care setting, including a physician’s office or urgent care clinics.
The company will ramp up its production to make 50,000 units per day beginning next week.
I know of someone who was tested here last Monday 3/23 and still doesn’t have the results. That’s too long.
WE NEED TO VOTE THEM OUT
Sad I still see people having social gathering
And once again Jackson Street Park basketball court full. No six feet apart there and always more than ten. Six feet under..is that the plan?
This situation makes me think of common movie plots where the characters make the wrong decisions, and the audience knows it even before it’s revealed that it was the wrong decision. I think that’s how some people are viewing the choices made by Washington County Officials. While others are thinking about movies where, yeah, they still make all of the wrong decisions, but then someone swoops in at the last second to save them from the choices they’ve made–and that will somehow mean they were the right decisions.
Brenham needs to start implementing better safety procedures leaving it up to some to do the right thing is absolutely absurd
I agree 100 percent!
Ok people Dr. just said on national TV….99% effective way to NOT catch COVID-19. Wash you hands regularly and don’t touch your face. It’s that simple, the same ones that are crying to shut everything down will be the same ones crying when we have NOTHING to go back to when this is over!!
The people that are dying already have literally nothing to go back to, but just out of curiosity, what were you referring to? What are you afraid won’t come back after shutting down for a few weeks? Should people fear that more than death? More than the medical bills for their hospitalization?
Do you think the economy is just gonna pick up where it left off? All the people that lost their jobs suddenly go back to work, oh wait many of those jobs will be out of business cause that stimulus package ain’t gonna cut it(not that I want anything from the government)….Just out of curiosity, were you this afraid of the Swine flu? 57 million Americans caught it, 257,000 hospitalized, 12000 died.
ALRIGHT BRÖTHER LETS DIE FOR THE DOW
Another horrible comparison. H1N1 and SARS did not require the amount of acute care that COVID-19 does. The entire point of quarantines is to slow the spread as not to overwhelm hospitals. No doubt the spread is going to continue and people will die in our area if people do not make better decisions.
No, I don’t think the economy is just going to pick back up, just like I don’t think the dead are going to be revived–I’m willing to endure a struggling economy if it means saving lives. Look up the differences between the swine flu and covid-19. I do think we should have done more, or learned more from that pandemic. It doesn’t feel like we did…maybe that’s because it only killed an estimated 0.02%. Perhaps the powers that be called that a victory. Covid-19 could be somewhere between 1% to 2%, if not higher, at the rate it’s going…that means millions.
I could have covid-19 and not know it–no symptoms at all for 14 days, if not ever having symptoms–and I could be infecting others all the while. Now don’t get me wrong, even if they did do a shut down, there are still essential businesses that need to operate, and mine could be considered among them, so the risk is still there. The goal is to stall this virus long enough to develop and test treatments that will save lives. We stall it by limiting exposure. The economy is already being hit hard–the effects of this virus will be with us a while–but we can sacrifice the economy–it’s not a living being, it won’t “die”. Since we are having to suffer the economic toll, no matter what, we might as well commit to defeating this thing…are you with me?
Life and health are more important than the economy at this point. This is a health matter not a political stunt. This is real and it’s not going away unless we respond responsibly. Quit comparing this to the swine flu or anything else. This is a beast of its own. Yes we need to wash hands religiously but keeping our distance will slow the spread. Be safe, not cocky.
It’s an airborne transmission based infection! Please pay attention to the entire press conference. Get your facts from the correct sources! CDC! WHO! NIH! Especially if you are not medically trained!
Agree. Just wash your hands and stay home. There is no way you can have the grocery stores open only select days. That will be a huge influx of people on those days. And then there are those who will go out in public even though they are sick will be there too.
I would like to know where these infected people have gone out in the community. Or who they have been in contact with. I know names do not need to be given. That would help determine where it is spreading from.
Just stay Home !!! Go out only when necessary to get groceries or meds.
So the Dr. on TV was saying No NEED to Social Distance?
I doubt that. I also Doubt that 99% value. A lot disease is spread through mouth spraying like from a cough or sneeze. If I’m passing within 6 feet of someone and they cough/sneeze (be it from Covid or Allergies), I’m likely contaminated.
Social distancing has been proven to decrease the rate of growth. Did you see how they got it under control in CHINA? It was not police arresting people (surveilled with DRONES) because they were NOT washing hands. It was because people were out and about, not social distancing.
We need SOCIAL Distancing and HAND Washing. And Self Quarantining if ill. and wearing mask if coughing and ill and going to hospital. And wearing PPE if caring for sick ones in medical field, …
Multi-prong approach.
I agree with Concerns……
Washing hands is great., But I did that religiosly almost obsessively! Yet here I am at home a suspected COVID patient so maybe it will take more than hand washing. Please stay home and stop spreading this virus. We will fix the economy when we stop the sickness.
If we don’t follow the actions that Brazos County is doing, which is where we will need to be hospitalized, then we are not helping our Brazos Valley area at all. Listened to their news briefing today and it is indeed scary that Washington County isn’t doing our part to try and stop this in our area, not just our County. We rely on them for a lot of our hospital care. Our leaders must consider that.
Why do these cases not show up on the official DSHS map of confirmed cases?
Now 5 of them are I imagine that they just took some time to get entered in to the system.
I emIled the state about this yesterday. Said they update daily but it also depends if the county is reporting the cases, which they should be.
The count grows every day. If more testing were done the count would most likely jump more than one per day. Maybe stricter restrictions and enforcement of those restrictions would slow the count? Scary.
It is time for government officials to take proactive steps by closing non-essential businesses. The numbers are unfortunately going to increase due to inaction of government leaders and those that do not take this seriously.
It’s a shame that we require government to tell us how to use common sense. Maybe it’s Darwin’s theory at its best.
Not really, just think about it more like a military operation. There’s a chain of command and orders must be followed–and it’s enforced. We’re doing battle with an invisible enemy, and we can’t leave it up to “recommendations” and “suggested guidelines”. Everyone needs to be on the same page, and follow orders. If it helps, imagine if our military was run the same way we’ve responded to this virus…scary eh?
What’s even more scary is the precedents that are being set and how the government will be easily allowed to control us in the future. This virus has an over 98% recovery rate and over 85% don’t even need hospitalization. If we continue this precedent we will be shut down on a regular basis for anything they deem necessary. That is an invitation for socialism. I hate it if 1 person dies from this virus, but I also hate anyone dying from the flu, car wrecks, or any kind of accident outside of your control. I didn’t see this kind of response to the Swine Flu and it was just as deadly if not more at this point…Just saying. From the CDC-57 million Americans were positive for swine flu, 257,000 hospitalized, 11,690 deaths(of which 1,180 were children)
You fail to grasp percentages. If the fatality rate is 2% and 150 million Americans catch it then that is 3 million deaths. Also using your hospitalization numbers, that would be 22.5 million hospitalizations in a relatively short period of time and no healthcare system on the planet can handle that. (By the way, the seasonal flu mortality rate ten times lower than this virus).
Also, if 2% of the 57 million Americans had died of swine flu then 1.14 million Americans would have succumbed to the disease. This is much more dangerous than the Swine Flu.
What I would like to see is how many people in Washington County have been tested and look at the percentages of positive cases. I suspect it would not take many hospitalizations to completely overwhelm the system here. The point of a shutdown is to slow the spread before it can overwhelm the system and if you act after cases start exploding then you are too late, but, by all means, lets worry about some non-existent “socialism” boogey man instead of a real problem that is threatening us all.
I agree. You speak with common sense, which, we seem to be short on at the moment.
Jake you are spot on. This COVID-19 is easier to catch with a R-0 of 2.5 to 4 than influenza.So 1 person infects 2 to 4 people – 2-3 more than influenza. Influenza R0 is 1.3.
Total mortality rate in USA ~1 % so far. Mortality rate in US appears lower than china’s 2.5% but still greater than influenza. Mortality rate for Influenza is 0.1 %. Mortality rate in 60-69 y/o patients is 4%. Mortality rate in 70-79 y/o patients is 8%. Mortality rate in 80+y/o > 15%
The combination of higher R0 and greater mortality rate is why experts are calling this is a ‘ the once-in-a-century pathogen’ not a minor bug or just the FLU.
Setting wrong precedent is not what knowledgeable infectious disease doctors are worried about. Read Anthony S. Fauci, M.D CV. . He knows more than you and I about this. Listen to his statements. If he is worried, I am worried. I am listening to what he and the CDC are saying.
We all have opinions including politicians or news media. These are worthless.
Listen to the experts.Your parents life may depend on it.
Common sense is right!!!!
To all that TRULY recognize how potentially DANGEROUS this situation is. All those who agree that we need a shelter in place, I hope you all consider running for mayor and judge. We need your kind of leadership in Washington county!
Yes, it is sad that people have to be ORDERED how to act. Unfortunately, that is how it has to be to stop the spread. We need a shelter in place. And washing your hands will not save you from breathing in the respiratory droplets left behind from those sick with the virus! Which apparently lingers in the air 3 HOURS after someone sneezes.
To the Judge, a shelter in place is NOT irrational, it is the wise thing to do! Wake up!
All non-essential businesses MUST be closed to stop the spread. Our county leaders are not taking this seriously enough. There will be deaths in Washington County. I am a health care worker and I know how to prevent the spread of disease. Covid-19 is on a whole different level. Is it going to take someone you know and love dying for you to stay home, stop socializing and shopping?? If you’re a non-essential worker, stay home.
It’s time for this town to stop being so proud and start making decisions to help slow this down! We also need to stop being so secretive about where these people have been so we know more about the spread of this virus! Not asking for names just more about how being transmitted!
I agree 100%.
I agree as well about locales. It helps to
understand the links to community spread. We need to know what the connections might be. Praying for all those suffering. And yes, we need to follow the guidelines to reduce the community spread.
Fearful the cases will keep multiplying….. I urge the city to take action and put a curfew and shelter in place in effect. If even for just for a just a week!