Quote:
Originally Posted by GoodLife
ALBANY — The majority of recently hospitalized coronavirus patients in New York are people who have followed the precaution of staying home, Gov. Cuomo said Wednesday.
The governor said it was “shocking" that 66% of new coronavirus hospitalizations are people who are either retired or unemployed and not commuting to work on a regular basis.
Cuomo: 66 percent of new coronavirus NY cases at home - New York Daily News |
Reading both the lines and between the lines:
The article says about 25% of those who came down with the disease were in nursing homes, retirement centers, assisted living facilities, and jails.
As for the 66% that are retired or unemployed, bear in mind what things are like in New York City and the cities across the River in New Jersey. A LOT of those people could stay at home and maybe do stay at home, but live with extended families in cramped apartments, and not all of those family members stay at home. Many have essential jobs, but then have to come home to their families, including grandma and grandpa. Many of the younger people may have the virus, but not have symptoms, and because they haven’t been tested, they may pass the virus on to older people in their households without realizing it. The older people get sick and have to be hospitalized. Until all contacts possible are tested, we won’t know.
Meanwhile, most people in The Villages live alone or with one person in a house, rather than an apartment home. Everyone has access to the luxury of space, fresh air, exercise (walking). We get upset about people not keeping six feet of distance, but compare that to twelve people in the Bronx living day and night in a two bedroom apartment with 700 square feet and four essential workers coming and going. This is why there are so few cases of the virus in The Villages and so few deaths, even though our age and medical histories would lead people to expect many more cases.
We should count our blessings. Probably more than 66% of the cases here are in the group in question. But consider. So far, 78 cases in The Villages out of a population of 130,000. If it were 1%, that would be 1,300 cases. We would need SEVENTEEN TIMES as many cases to equal that number, and that is the number sick, not dead. Off the top of my head, about 0.06% of people in The Villages have been diagnosed. By contrast, on average, 0.1% of the people who catch the flu every year die of it.
This must be one of the safer places to be in the whole country.