Part of the insidiousness of COVID-19 lies in its capacity to make dangerous everyday interactions that seem so natural, necessary and harmless. That includes gathering with extended family, our church communities and friends.
Reporter David Bruce detailed some good news in last week’s Erie County coronavirus statistics. As of Friday, cases had declined significantly over the week. The state Department of Health reported 71 new cases for the week that ended Thursday, compared with 123 cases that had been tallied the week before.
Bruce said some of the decline might be attributed to the completion of statewide mandated testing of all Pennsylvania long-term care facility residents and staff. The virus has spread quickly in such settings. In Erie County, at least 270 cases have been connected with such facilities.
Bruce also detailed Erie County Executive Kathy Dahlkemper’s encouraging remarks about efforts to keep the virus in check at Gannon University, one of the first local schools to resume classes. Dahlkemper reported seeing near total student compliance with mask-wearing. That kind of discipline and vigilance will be needed to maintain a successful reopening, as we have seen the disastrous fallout in other schools across the nation, where students, especially outside of class, gather in large groups and party with hardly a mask in sight.
There was also a weekly decline in the testing positivity rate from 5.8% to 4.5% and the incidence rate per 100,000 people dropped from 45.2% to 26.1%.
Still, as Bruce detailed, as of Friday, 1,271 people had contracted the disease in Erie County and 35 had died. As of Friday, 15 patients were hospitalized with four requiring ventilators.
That again points up the urgency for all residents to remain alert and not take even seemingly innocuous social gatherings for granted as safe.
Melissa Lyon, Erie County Department of Health director, told Bruce last week that the department is seeing cases spread out of small group gatherings, especially those held indoors.
People are not wearing masks and they are not keeping 6 feet from one another. She said outdoor gatherings, with more room and better ventilation, seem to present less of a problem.
No doubt those who host or attend events that seed new COVID-19 cases are likely devastated that something so innocent and natural could serve as a vector of the deadly disease.
That is why it is so important not to slip back into old, comfortable habits and interactions.
We are social creatures. It is difficult to rein in those impulses, especially after so many months of disruption and isolation. But if we ever want to return to normal, carefree interactions, that is what we must do.
— Erie Times-News
