SARS-CoV-2 Coronavirus (COVID-19)

The skiing was going well, until Saturday afternoon. By Sunday morning, every place we were headed was either already closed, or announcing that they'd cease operations at the end of the day.

Canadian skiing is still open, but we've already BTDT, used up our pass allowances.

On a scenic drive, we saw plenty of folks are out for remote nordic skiing, snowshowing, and snowmobiling. Plenty of social distance out there.

Most National Parks are still open, for now, at least the outdoor portions ...

 

Good time to go camping!

 

24 degrees this morning...

 

The phrase, "I'm going to Disneyland!" apparently has even been postponed for all us tech support employees too - even though there's always plenty to do, even though we aren't even working near other employees, even though we always work wearing latex / nitrile type gloves.
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is iger paying you?

 

I'm performing pre-storm maintenance for one of my offices this week (May is right around the corner!!)

I've seen 2 other techs at a distance of 50' in their trucks.
Normally we would have brought it in for a grip-grin-and gossip but we just waved today.....

@24-degrees...... Good camping WX!!!
Keeps the amateures away.

 

The Visitor Center at the entrance of Mesa Verde National Park was wide open for business this morning, inside too.

But by the time we reached the Chapin Mesa facility at the far end, the order from above to close all indoor park facilities (except restrooms) had arrived. A staffer pulled a table outside to a sunny patio to hand out maps and offer guidance. All the usual winter trails and sites and sights remained open, so we spent the whole day in the Park.

 

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Started my new job yesterday. All employees, whose jobs allow them to, are rotating in/out of the office as needed. Some are attending to children out of school, and others just to reduce staff levels inside the building. Since I'm the new guy, I need to stay around to learn. Eventually, if this crisis continues, I may also join the rotation process.

 

My new staff are the first ones to be "non-essential".

So they're the ones who begin to work from home.

The Bay Area has taken serious steps to quell the spread and "flatten the curve":

Contra Costa & 6 Other Bay Area Jurisdictions Order Residents to Stay Home :: Press Releases :: Contra Costa Health Services

Looks like I'll get to known my family a lot better over the next 3 weeks .

 

good overnight news in ma, 200 more tested, no increase in case

 

1400 tests, 240 confirmed and presumptive cases in ma

 

Update 3 - 3/17/2020
Ok, now this is what a pandemic going out of control looks like. Total U.S. numbers jumped by four digits (~1700 cases) in the past day with NY adding 750(!!!!) cases by itself. NY now has the unenviable top spot of COVID-19 infections at 1700 cases. The only unclear point is whether the spike is due to greater testing or actual new infections. Even with aggressive measures, we should likely expect these numbers to keep spiking for the next week or two.


Data is from COVID19 Tracker

 

Apparently some of the U.S. non-general population is being tested against guidelines, further suggesting a very large percentage of uncounted, unrecognized, and asymptomatic COVID positives among us.

Four players on the Nets' active roster tested positive for COVID-19, the team revealed Tuesday, bringing the NBA's leaguewide cases to seven. All but one of the players were asymptomatic, the team said, declining to reveal their identities.​

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.sportingnews.com/us/amp/nba/news/coronavirus-updates-nba-players-athletes-test-positive-covid-19/sm1jjsmu150r1oppji3ae32vj

Bad news for need for accurate metrics and critical trace control. Good news in that it further suggests the morbidly and mortality is markedly lower than the heavily selection biased results of essentially all tested countries. Vast asymptomatic/ minimally symptomatic undercounting would be compatible with why total worldwide deaths are as low as they are.

 

Our local economy is going to suffer badly. We live next to a series of commuter parking lots than can hold about 600 cars for those taking the Metra trains into the city. Total cars I saw in the lots today at 2pm... ten. I hope many of those commuters can work from home, and knowing that most of them probably can't. The only good news is that the streets are very thin with cars. No real rush hour happening these days. Cleaner air for sure.

 

best thing that ever happened to the rest of the natural world. and us, if we could find a way not to ramp it all back up again

 

No inflection point yet, growth is still exponential. This shows up best as a straight line on a logarithmic scale: