The crackdown has started at last — late, but better late than never. Just in time for Thanksgiving!
Most prominently, the state is telling Minnesotans not to gather with anyone outside of their immediate household, just a week before the Thanksgiving holiday.
In addition: Indoor and outdoor dining will be prohibited, limiting restaurants and bars to takeout service only. Public pools, rec centers, gyms, fitness and dance studios and indoor entertainment venues like theaters and bowling alleys will also be closed.
Wedding receptions, celebrations and private parties are also not allowed under the new orders, though wedding ceremonies, funerals and other religious events are allowed if they follow current capacity and social distancing rules.
This is good. Shut down this nonsense now.
Unfortunately, there is some bad news.
The order also puts organized sports — for youth and adults — on pause, but allows professional and college sports to continue, under certain restrictions.
Retail, salons, places of worship, other activities will operate under restrictions already in place.
You know what this means, sports fans and church-goers! The state is just fine with you getting sick and dying. That’s no skin off my nose, since I don’t belong to either group, but I think you ought to be protesting and demanding equal respect. Close the churches and the sports arenas too!
The top sources for the several thousand COVID-19 cases in Minnesota since June 1st according to the Minnesota Department of Health are as follows:
Restaurant/bar: 3201
Wedding: 950
Sports: 780
Gym: 747
Social gathering: 609
Church: 253
Funeral: 191
Festival/fair: 54
Concert: 48
Salon: 41
So concentrating on bars, restaurants, and social gathering events like weddings makes sense, and so does closing all gyms and fitness centers. Churches as it turns out aren’t so significant, nor are funerals as long as there’s no reception afterwards. So Gov. Walz is focusing on the most important sources of COVID-19 cases.
waiting to hear shouts of
Even as someone who hasn’t got the time of day for professional sports, as far as I can tell, all the professional sports in the US are being played without fans on-site. The baseball stadiums had carboard cutouts of fans for the summer, and football just avoids panning the cameras over the empty seats.
Which isn’t to say there aren’t a lot of people down on the field who aren’t playing, but it’s not thousands of screaming fans crammed cheek-by-jowl.
@3
You are right about baseball, but It depends on the league and the state. For example the Dallas Cowboys (NFL football) had more than 30,000 fans (seats 80,000) at a November 8th game. In PZ’s Minnesota, fan attendance at pro and college events has been either zero or a very small percentage of capacity. Vikings? Zero fans this year. Minnesota Golden Gophers college football teams outdoor stadium has a capacity of about 50,000, but is limiting attendance to 800 friends and family of the team
Re: slithy tove @ #2…
Rapidly followed by “you can’t make me!”
There is a church in San Jose, CA that has been fined repeatedly for violating public health orders. The amount has built up to $350K. None of it has been paid. The county DA finally got a court order shutting them down. Haven’t heard anything since then, but I suspect the next action is to drag the church leaders into court for a contempt hearing.
There is a British pre-print article about a nasal spray that may prevent infection by Sars-cov-2 for up to two days. The component substances are well known, and approved for use by humans.
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Unrelated: some French Canadians have a mutation on a gene (PCSK9) that makes them safe from cardiovascular and liver disease, and makes them healthy in their 80s and 90s. When you guys get an illegal gene lab going, I will be your first customer!
More breaking news about organized sports: All football games will end immediately after the halftime show. If they kept playing, the team that was ahead might lose, and that would be unacceptable.
California is imposing a 10 PM to 5 AM curfew in all counties with a “purple” tier rating. That covers about 90% of the state population. The curfew goes into effect on Saturday.
Where I live in the state of South Australia, a hard lockdown has been ordered for 6 days from yesterday morning. The trigger? 22 cases from a quarantine based infection virus escape. It’s looking good so far with no reported new cases yesterday so hopefully we’ll be back to quasi normal life soon. 99.9% of the population is complying although there are always a few idiots giving it a good old go.
Over to your west, we get Queen Of COVIDia reminding us to wash our hands.
@6 You don’t have to wait that long.
There are already two approved drugs targeting PCSK9 to prevent cardiovascular disease.
birgerjohansson@6 I have heard of the “French paradox.” Is there also a Quebecois paradox?
And the Great SA Lockdown turns out to be based on … a lie. A worker at a quarantine hotel (not being the one where the virus escaped from) got the virus. He claimed to have bought a pizza from a shop where a worker from the other hotel did some shifts. The authorities panicked at the clear evidence of a new even more transmissible strain and ordered the lockdown on Wednesday. When contact tracers couldn’t join the dots they eventually found out that the worker had lied and had actually worked a few shifts beside the virus spreader. They’ve ordered the shut down to end three days early as they now have a much smaller number of potential cases to trace. The Premier of SA is furious and is looking for a way to charge the liar with something. What the liar was hiding is not yet known but illegal cash based employment is my best guess.
Sunday morning we go back to regular distancing with a little luck.
Spider time
https://www.cupoty.com/laurent-hesemans-motherhood
Has anyone blamed Biden for this yet?
Nah, Stuart. Vicar (the) hasn’t yet commented on this thread.
Just got an alert over my iPhone where IL just upped their almost lock down orders during the Holidays. Won’t effect me, as I’m still locking down due to my age. Stay healthy out there.
After a couple of outbreaks in fast food restaurants, our public health unit in Easternn Ontario has “requested” that employees in pubs and restaurants get tested yor Covid-19 plus wear single use masks, (i.e. no cloth masks) and safety glasses. People like hosts/hostesses who may encounter an unmasked person entering the premises also get a face shield.
The chief officer of health is proactive.
Some folk dance friends in MN invited me to their Orthodox church’s zoom service. Some of them take Covid seriously.