My mom currently lives in AZ. Because of medical issues, she’s moving back to the East Coast to a senior residential community near my brother. He’s going out to get her, and they’re flying back the week before the Inauguration, probably into Dulles. They’ll be flying first class, so fewer people next to them (just each other), but even so, I’m very worried about both of them. Especially since they’ll be flying United, which, like most of the other airlines, has been packing people in again.
I’m starting to wonder when the US will be asking to send cases across the borders to countries with more room… 
Not that Canada is doing very well at the moment either. The Greater Toronto Area has gone into lockdown.
I’m glad my workplace has taken this seriously from the beginning. Masks, sanitise workstations before and after shift, staggered shifts to reduce crowding in common areas, barriers and spacing in common areas. (I work in an auto parts factory.) When I am out around town, everyone seems to be wearing masks and washing hands.
We have to take our temperature before going to work each day, and there’s an app with questions we answer to get permission to come in. I know people who have been off four times in the past few months because of suspected covid exposure (turned out to be negative each time), and the employee newsletter mentioned an absenteeism rate of 10% because of what we are now calling ‘covid leave’.
Last week we got our own on-site rapid-response test centre (15-min to 1-hour turnaround; you wait in your car). If we test positive there we don’t come in and we go and get a regular test at the clinic.
Luckily, I haven’t had so much as a sniffle… all the masking and handwashing seems to have cut down the regular illnesses even.
I’m sorry for your mother’s health issues, while there is never a good time for loved ones to have health issues, this is a really sucky time.
Mom is flying Southwest and has been assured that the middle seat is blocked off. I wish I had thought to buy her a first class ticket, but I can’t upgrade now and changing plans now could mean she can’t come later. Its only a 2 hour flight and I’m really not that concerned about the plane trip itself. Its the airports. I arranged for her to have help getting to the plane and back off, but we aren’t sure about the baggage. Mom says she will have small bills for tips, so hopefully she will be able to find a porter if needed.
So, where’s your mom live? If she’s in my area, I can drag her trash can to the curb for her.
So, just because I didn’t want to sleep tonight, I checked the latest Arizona Repulsive reports on COVID and hey things aren’t so bad here, just look over there!
“Cases are surging in North Dakota, where the new case rate per 100,000 people for the previous seven days was 162.9 as of Saturday, the CDC reports. By comparison, Arizona’s rate was 44.1.”
I don’t know that we can replicate “very young population and warm climate”.
No worries, there, but thanks for the offer. She lives in a senior residential community down in Sierra Vista, so the garbage is taken care of by the staff. The place she’s moving to is owned by the same people and has pretty much the same layout.
Mostly she’s coming back because of her macular degeneration. She can’t see well enough to take care of the her paperwork anymore or deal with officialdom.
Her location is why my brother is going out; the nearest airport is Tucson, which is about a 90-minute drive. Her macular degeneration means she can’t make the drive herself, obviously. So he’s flying out, driving down, grabbing her, driving back to Tucson, they overnight at an airport hotel, and fly out the next day.
I thought Southwest didn’t have any classes? Also, if you let the airline know, they can help with things like luggage and transport within the airports themselves. They’re used to dealing with people who need assistance, even in these times.
Thank you. I was trying to figure out the idiom.
wrong thread
I don’t know about the classes, I just booked a ticket and requested help to and from the plane. Mom wanted Southwest, so I figured that if I was going to force the issue, I would try to force it gently.
I’ve just been told by a friend that her grands in both Phoenix and Prescott Valley (different counties) will finish up this week in classrooms and not go back until next year. No cites or links, sorry.
As Morgyn suggests, Southwest, in fact, is all-coach seating. (It’s also unassigned seating – you board in groups, based on when you check in for the flight, and sit anywhere you want.)
58,985,500 total cases
1,393,671 dead
40,766,904 recovered
In the US:
12,588,661 total cases
262,696 dead
7,452,540 recovered
Yesterday’s numbers for comparison:
Since the first wave of the pandemic, there has been a higher production of ventilators. At this point though, there is more of a shortage of trained personnel who know how to use them, especially in rural areas. On the other hand, there have been many innovations in how to treat covid without ventilators, so that might be helpful.
The Oxford University showed a 70% effectiveness which is still pretty decent but importantly doesn’t need to be stored in arctic conditions and will be far easier to distribute which is great news for the poorer and remoter parts of the world. Also a part of the trial that involved a small dose followed by a large dose seemed to show a 90% effectiveness, but they are still puzzling that one out.
My state border has opened 
I can visit family
This was one of the restrictions without any obvious medical justification in the first place, and it’s been a month since anybody in my state got infected anyway, but the states here /all/ treat COVID as primarily a political issue rather than as a medical issue, and evidently /all/ the states, regardless of infection levels and public health resources thought that “closing the borders” was a political winner. It was tough on border towns, which suddenly had a ‘Berlin’ border down the center.
In the other direction, the border won’t open for another week at least – they’ve gone from locking us out, to locking themselves in. But I don’t have relatives on that side.
It is clear that it is /very hard/ to keep infection down at zero: for reference, there is /no chance/ that the USA will be able to contain infection before the vaccine arrives in spring.
melbourne.victoria.australia
Supposedly, Wisconsin, after having daily death numbers between 50 - 80 last week suddenly had no deaths reported yesterday.
Maybe it’s just me, but something doesn’t sound right.
You mean like someone forgot to upload Sunday’s data? Or do you smell… shenanigans?
True. Passengers board the plane in groups, depending on their boarding pass. You choose your own seat once on board.
But if you’re elderly, disabled, or need assistance in some other way (traveling with children) you can board ahead of the rest of the passengers. @JaneDoe42, your mom should take advantage of this. When she gets to the gate, tell her to speak to the people at the desk where you check in. Also, tell her to be alert to the announcement asking those needing help to stand over to one side near the door to board.
QUESTION: Are there any COVID stats coming out of Russia these days?
It’s weird that the small dose followed by a larger dose was more effective than two large doses. I wonder what that means.
It’s pretty common for a day to be reported late, especially a weekend day.
They actually did a lot of good work and cooperation between countries. Warm climate isn’t locked down as a factor, afaik. Not like all the warm American states are at Africa covid levels.