Coronavirus Sars-CoV-2/Covid-19 Megathread

[Syt]

https://www.denverpost.com/2020/05/10/castle-rock-cc-coffee-reopens-coronavirus/

Castle Rock restaurant reopens to Mother's Day crowds in defiance of statewide public health order

C&C Coffee and Kitchen owner wrote on Facebook that she "would go out of business if I don't do something"

A Castle Rock restaurant drew crowds Sunday when it reopened fully for Mother's Day in defiance of Colorado's public health order that limits restaurants statewide to takeout and delivery services.

Customers packed C&C Coffee and Kitchen on Trail Boss Drive Sunday, filling tables, a patio and forming a line out the door for dine-in service.

Gov. Jared Polis' office on Sunday issued a statement calling such conduct illegal and dangerous.

"These restaurants are not only breaking the law, they are endangering the lives of their staff, customers, and community," said the statement by deputy press secretary Shelby Wieman.

"Under Safer at Home, restaurants, food courts, cafes, coffeehouses, and other similar places of public accommodation offering food or beverage for on-premises consumption are still closed.  Delivery and drive-up service is available. Coloradans can contact their local public health department if they believe someone is violating Safer at Home."

At C&C, Nick Whitehill said he ordered food for what he thought would be curbside pickup and, when he arrived, was surprised to see the crowd.

"It was unbelievable," Whitehill said.

Wearing a mask, he went in to pick up his order, which he'd paid for. But then he left, without his food, after realizing that staffers weren't wearing masks that customers weren't practicing social distancing, he said.

Douglas County officials have not required residents to wear masks inside businesses. Gov.  Polis has recommended use of cloth facial coverings and has ordered "essential" employees statewide, including grocery store clerks and restaurant workers, to wear masks while interacting with customers.

Photos and video shared on social media showed crowds inside C&C Coffee and Kitchen on Sunday with few people wearing masks.

Whitehill posted photos of the crowd on the social media site Twitter to warn others not to go to the restaurant and to "shame" the eatery, he said.

"I wasn't even going to eat the food even if I had gotten it," he said. "I walked in, took the picture and turned right around."

Whitehill said he also filed a complaint with the Tri-County Health Department, which has jurisdiction over Douglas County. Tri-County officials on Sunday couldn't be reached.

C&C Coffee and Kitchen owner April Arellano did not respond to a request for comment Sunday, but a Twitter account for the restaurant declared it was reopening to stand "for America, small businesses, the Constitution and against the overreach of our governor in Colorado!!"

Arellano also wrote on Facebook that she "would go out of business if I don't do something," and said that "if I lose the business at least I'm fighting."

"We are so behind," she said in a comment on her post. "We have complied for two months. We cannot make it on $200/day sales when 2 staff cost me $250 not counting, food, cost, utilities and rent."

Arellano also posted a brief live video on her Facebook page showing the crowd in the restaurant.

"So much for some of those people saying nobody would show up," she said in the video. "Thank you, thank you, thank you so much for the support, guys. I got to get back to work."

A spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment said no one was available Sunday to discuss the restaurant's reopening and what might be done about it, but said violating the state public health order is a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of $1,000 or up to a year in jail.

Authorities also have said restaurants could have their licenses revoked for violating the order. Colorado residents are required to follow the statewide public health order that created guidelines for how businesses can reopen as Colorado enters the "safer-at-home" phase of the state's response to the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Under that order, restaurants, cafes, bars and coffee shops cannot offer dine-in services until at least May 26, but can fill orders for delivery and takeout as long as they follow social-distancing protocols. Polis on Friday said he'd like to see Colorado's restaurants reopen by the end of May, if not before Memorial Day.

Tri-County health officials last week shut down the Water's Edge Winery in Centennial because it was allowing customers to sit at tables on the patio and was ignoring social-distancing measures, department officials said last Thursday. The restaurant reopened Friday for takeout and delivery services after the owner agreed to follow all public health orders.

Another brave strike against the virus-diktat of the nefarious covid-fascists!

[Zoupa]

If you had at least read the first paragraph, maybe you would see the link?

Evidently not, so here we are.  If your ass is not too full, would you care to explain what the link is supposed to be?

Why do you think the nurse rushed in without proper equipment, and what do you think of her decision?

[Syt]

Vienna is reporting no notable excess mortality so far compared to previous years.

[Tamas]

Following Jonhson's big speech there's now confusion because more people apparently went to work today crowding (relatively) the underground etc. but Dominic Raab is now saying on radio that the new measures come into effect from Wednesday, not today.

He is also saying people are free to go an meet parents as long as they keep 2m apart. Which is pretty massive and was not mentioned by Johnson.


I don't think assembling a government out of the most desperate radical muppets of the Tories was a good idea.

[Syt]

A big step in reopening will come on Friday when restaurants and similar are permitted to welcome guests again.

The rules, though, are strict:

- permitted opening hours are 6 am till 11 pm
- staff must wear masks if dealing with customers
- food/drink can't be consumed at the bar, if the place has one
- maximum 4 adults per table (plus their-non-adult children)
- at least 1 meter distance between groups
- in closed rooms, customers must be escorted to their table (most restaurants here don't have that per default)
- on entering/leaving a place, going to the rest rooms, etc. customers must keep 1 meter distance from others and cover nose/mouth
- salt/pepper etc can't be on the table by default and can only be brought to the table on customer request
- self service buffets are allowed, but only if the food is already portioned into servings

A lot of small places will struggle with these rules. E.g. our preferred burrito lunch place already announced that they will jut stick with delivery/take out only while reworking their concept (the place is tiny and PACKED during lunch hours). Larger places easily lose 50% of capacity under these rules.

The chancellor has already said that of course there won't be police going from place to place ensuring that the rules are kept to the letter, so we'll see how people will observe those rules (I guess especially small pubs with a strong core customer base won't give two fucks).

Meanwhile, the annual Golf GTI meet up at Wörthersee is cancelled due to Corona, but that didn't stop hundreds of GTI enthusiasts to meet in various spots in Austria, violating the rules for size of events/meetings.

[garbon]

Following Jonhson's big speech there's now confusion because more people apparently went to work today crowding (relatively) the underground etc. but Dominic Raab is now saying on radio that the new measures come into effect from Wednesday, not today.

He is also saying people are free to go an meet parents as long as they keep 2m apart. Which is pretty massive and was not mentioned by Johnson.


I don't think assembling a government out of the most desperate radical muppets of the Tories was a good idea.

As pointed out by many in the opposition parties, many will die as a result of these vague directions and mixed signals.

[Sheilbh]

All they needed to do was issue detailed guidance on this (not least for employers - what do they need to do for health and safety) - and if it's not ready, don't give a speech.

Interesting stats (not adjusted for urban/rural location or ethnicity, but adjusted for age) on the impact in different professions:
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/causesofdeath/bulletins/coronaviruscovid19relateddeathsbyoccupationenglandandwales/deathsregistereduptoandincluding20april2020

There are higher death rates among security guards. social care workers, cab drivers, public transport drivers, chefs and retail assistants. Interestingly no observed difference with nurses, doctors and other healthcare workers (which I'm surprised by given the PPE issues).

[Tamas]

Incompetence is really starting to seep through the cracks doesn't it.

[Syt]

It seems that the spike in infections in my old home county in Germany originate from the town where i grew up. For years a local meat plant has been in the news for the awfully crowded and squalid conditions in which their Balkanic guest workers live in "company apartments". Their quarters are now a quarantined hotspot. Similarly with a meat plant in a neighboring district.

[celedhring]

All they needed to do was issue detailed guidance on this (not least for employers - what do they need to do for health and safety) - and if it's not ready, don't give a speech.

Interesting stats (not adjusted for urban/rural location or ethnicity, but adjusted for age) on the impact in different professions:
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/causesofdeath/bulletins/coronaviruscovid19relateddeathsbyoccupationenglandandwales/deathsregistereduptoandincluding20april2020

There are higher death rates among security guards. social care workers, cab drivers, public transport drivers, chefs and retail assistants. Interestingly no observed difference with nurses, doctors and other healthcare workers (which I'm surprised by given the PPE issues).

Lethality is 0,2% among health care workers in Spain but that's not adjusted for age.

One interesting stat that was released today that speaks about how over-represented women are in first-line health care over here: 1 in 8 covid cases in males in Spain are health care workers, 1 in 3 in women.

[Sheilbh]

Interesting, I think this is just fatality, not cases so that could be the same here - especially as nursing and social care workers are overwhelmingly women.

But it's striking that in all settings men are about twice as likely to die. The fatality among female healthcare workers is actually a little below average, for men it is just the average.

[Tamas]

So latest thing that Johnson didn't mention in the speech but the press was briefed on is that now you are allowed to meet people outside as long as you maintain 2 meters. And just one single person.

This is not going to end well. The next time there's sunshine the parks will be full of people mingling.

Brits, you might as well embrace for a second spike.

[celedhring]

La Liga unveils plans to restart mid-June playing games every 3 days and testing everybody (800 tests per set of games, if you count only players) 24 hours before.

That will not go down well.

[Sheilbh]

It is the comms issue as well again. So Johnson's speech all refers to "this week" and the only day he gives is from this Wednesday, which I think is why Raab mentioned that. It was the pre-speech breifing to the press by Nr 10 that was referring to starting today. Hopefully very few employers emailed their staff last night and told them to come in.

It'll be interesting to see the transport usage data soon because I'm not sure how different the footage from the Tube etc is from the past few weeks - as there are still lots of non-essential businesses that are working and lots of essential workers/businesses too. The thing I find really striking is there's still no guidance on face coverings/masks which I think would help.

I was thinking this when I popped outside with a coffee because there's been building works going on on my block for the last few weeks (finishing today), but also from my desk today I've seen multiple maintenance workers (it's a council block) which, again, has been going on for weeks. So I'm aware that there are lots of people who have been working for weeks and I don't know how much of my surprise at the Tube is just, sort-of WFH privilege and how much has been going on for days.

So latest thing that Johnson didn't mention in the speech but the press was briefed on is that now you are allowed to meet people outside as long as you maintain 2 meters. And just one single person.

In a park/outside - which is fairly specific. Which I think could be okay with because my understanding is that globally there's very little evidence of significant transmission outdoors. It's exposure to each other in enclosed spaces that's far more risky, which I why I really hope employers didn't just go back to work but started trying to work out how to make the workplace safe to go back.

[Tamas]

My thinking is that if the unbased tabloid nonsense prompted the upper-middle class people in my street (who already have yards and gardens) to organise a street party for VE Day, then a carte blanche to organise park meetups will prompt a LOT of people start using the parks as pubs, basically. I understand that's better than actual pubs, but still.