Stay-At-Home

NBC10

This afternoon the governor announced a stay-at-home order for the largest cities in our state and their surrounding counties, where there have been the most COVID-19 cases. This includes me, but it isn't much different than the previous orders of lockdown and closing all non-life sustaining businesses. I think the difference with this order is that there is some way to enforce it, if someone is out without a good reason. The guidance is to only leave "if someone's life depends on it" (e.g. buying food, medicine, or going to work in an essential job). How would they tell, though? Will police just stop people randomly and ask where they're going, and take them on their word? Or is this an attempt to break up gatherings at parks, etc. as were seen over the past week and weekend?

The goal in enacting this for certain counties is to reduce the spread from these hardest-hit areas to areas with fewer cases. Most states surrounding us are now on shelter-in-place orders, which is pretty much the same thing. However, I just can't imagine that a virus will respect county or state lines...

They also extended the closure of schools for another two weeks, but I wish they would just go ahead and cancel the rest of the year, like some states and most colleges already have. There is no realistic way kids can go back to school and still maintain social distancing. And even if some of these "lockdown" restrictions are lifted, we will have to practice some level of distancing for the foreseeable future, until a vaccine is approved and widely available...

While non-essential businesses are to be closed, many parks are still open, as long as people practice appropriate distancing. I just saw a note that my township is closing all playgrounds in our public parks, and will rope them off with caution tape. This is a good step, unfortunately some kids can't resist a playground! Over the weekend a friend of mine took her kids out to parks they found that specifically did not have playgrounds, just so they wouldn't have to worry about the temptation.

Tokyo also postponed the 2020 Olympics. No new date is set, but they probably won't be held until 2021. So at least we don't have to worry about Akira happening this year...