The COVID-19 situation

[Jazzy]

What's the COVID-19 situation like in your area?

 

[Lamb]

We still have many places that were not allowed to reopen and some aren't open at full capacity. It's ridiculous since I live in the country and my town had only 2 deaths and they were from the nursing home. We really aren't at risk here like in the populated areas and I don't think that a governor should be in charge of the entire state in this situation because he's a city guy thinking like a city guy...he doesn't realize the country is another world.

 

[tango]

What's the COVID-19 situation like in your area?

Silly paranoia mode.

Where I live is a rural small town where maintaining distance is baked into the lifestyle. The rules make no sense - schools are kinda-sorta-open but doing some stuff online. How working parents are supposed to cope is a mystery. Bars aren't allowed to serve alcohol unless you're having a meal but nobody can define what counts as a meal. Restaurants are open, kind of, but with most of the tables blocked off. People rush around wiping things after they have been touched but only in some places.

I haven't been interested in the official statistics for weeks now because every which way they are spun it looks more like an agenda to tell people to be afraid. I'm sick of being lied to.

 

[hedrick]

It has been stable in NJ for a couple of months. We're slowly opening things. Restaurants are limited to 25% indoors but can also do outdoors. A majority of schools are in-person half the time, but some are all remote. Those that are still all remote have plans to open in a month or so. If we don't see a spike (and I don't think we will), we'll slowly get looser. Our big advantage is that everyone wears masks where it makes sense (and not where it doesn't).

Our church takes reservations for in person attendance to control numbers. The rest is online. Sunday school will be mostly remote with some in-person meetings. Youth groups are in person, outside. Again, I think if there are no issues caused by schools and restaurants opening, we'll get looser over time.

I'm not affected personally very much. I go to work. I don't think there's any danger, since almost no one is there. I can shop normally (with mask). I use the same restaurants I used to, but take out. Church is the main difference. It's online. Our church has good participation. We even had a new member class.

I think NJ may have taken a saner approach than some states. We never fully shutdown. There was a "stay at home order" with so many exceptions that it didn't mean much. (Religious activities was one exception.) What shut down was mostly retail and entertainment / sports. Our people seem pretty understanding and cooperative. Rules for churches have been in sync with all other in-person activities, so it's hard to raise a constitutional question.

Of course I'm lucky enough to be employed. I'm sure I'd feel differently if I were in a business that shut down, or in health care or a school, or some area that has had real challenges.

 

[NewCreation435]

Most things are open, but with my lower capacity. The only thing that isn't open right now I think are bars and I don't drink so that doesn't matter to me. Even gyms have been allowed recently to open

 

[hedrick]

I just read a note from an executive presbyter (office in charge of administration of a PCUSA presbytery -- roughly a good chunk of a state). He said that in the two presbyteries he knows, income has been remarkably stable, and churches have been finding ways to serve.

I note that because some articles are saying that churches are having big problems, and some may not survive. https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2020/04/24/church-budgets-coronavirus-debt/

 

[tango]

I just read a note from an executive presbyter (office in charge of administration of a PCUSA presbytery -- roughly a good chunk of a state). He said that in the two presbyteries he knows, income has been remarkably stable, and churches have been finding ways to serve.

I note that because some articles are saying that churches are having big problems, and some may not survive. https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2020/04/24/church-budgets-coronavirus-debt/

The weekly offerings at my church are higher now even though physical attendance is maybe 50-60% of what it used to be.

 

[Forgiven1]

After a dramatic rise in cases in mid-June to mid-August, the numbers of reduced. We were at capacity for our ICU units and now at about 20% ICU capacity. We have had a total of 385 deaths in the county (population of about 360,000). Schools open for the first 2 weeks virtually and now they are returning to the classrooms at an interval rate. Places a open with restrictions and there is a statewide mask mandate. Things are looking up in my city and even the state.

 

[Lamb]

Today I tried searching for the number of deaths in my town and it used to be listed on the John Hopkins website but it's no longer there. I can't only find the county's figures