If there was any question as to whether or not the number of new coronavirus cases were increasing in Georgia, any ambiguity is now gone. Three of the last four days saw the highest number of new infections since the peak of the pandemic back in April.
Actually, I misspoke. With over 6,000 new cases in the last four days, the peak of the pandemic wasn't back in April, it's right now.
According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
“The pandemic rages on. Instead of vanishing under warmer temperatures, as the president once predicted, the coronavirus has only bitten down harder.
Spiking cases have Georgia’s rural hospitals bracing for surges all over again. Infections have increased among people in their teens and 20s, who health experts say may be less likely to heed guidance to wear masks and socially distance. But the governor, who has championed a swift reopening of the economy, says he has no plans to impose new restrictions or mandate face masks.”
Yesterday, while I was out on one of my daily walks, I saw several of my neighbors setting up an outdoor table out on the street. They called out to me and it would have rude to ignore them, so I went over to see what they were up to. As it turns out, several houses on my block were recently sold and we have several new neighbors, and they were throwing an impromptu outdoor cocktail party for those new neighbors.
No one was wearing a mask, although it appeared that some effort was going into an attempt to keep distant from each other and there was no shaking of hands. I was just going to wish them well and be on my way, until I realized that at least one of the new neighbors were a family of color (actually, Nigerian immigrants, I believe) and I both wanted to get to better know them in particular, as well as let them know they had an ally here in the neighborhood. So I wound up joining the party (also, the party had Bell's IPA).
It was my first and only major breach of quarantine protocol, my first non-essential contact since March. It was important to me socially to meet both my new and my existing neighbors and to enhance the sense of community, so I don't regret it. I wasn't masked (no one was), but we were outdoors and we were standing relatively far apart, and there are no known infections yet on my block. I should be okay, but I also see how easily it is for peer pressure to cause one to abandon the discipline of quarantine.
1 comment:
I’ve been walking Charlie around the neighborhood ever since March 13th, unmasked. No-one else is wearing masks, but no-one is getting any closer than six feet, either. Most interactions last less than fifteen minutes which, apparently is the crucial time frame for infection. A couple of times I’ve been a little worried afterwards, because it’s really hard to maintain those six feet and some people, one neighbor in particular, have no idea about how much personal space they are invading. I think I would have gone totally nuts by now if I hadn’t had these daily interactions.
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