With the spring holidays in many regions, warns dr. Rochelle Walensky – director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – Americans that the failure of pandemic precautions could lead to another increase in cases. ‘We saw footage of people enjoying machine-free during the spring break; it’s all in the context of another 50,000 cases a day, ‘Walensky said at a news conference on Monday.
She added that many places in Europe now see COVID-19 nails after the weakening of restrictions, and this is proof that it can be difficult to ‘take your eye off the ball’. “I plead with you for the sake of the health of our country. These should be warning signs for all of us,” Walensky said. Despite these pleas, data from the Transportation Security Administration show that more than 1 million Americans travel every day in the past week, the highest number of travelers since the pandemic began.
Where do these individuals go then, and do they stay safe? Here’s what you need to know.
Springbreakers flock to beaches in Texas, where all restrictions have been lifted
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott officially lifted all pandemic restrictions in the state on March 2 so businesses could reopen at 100 percent and masks thrown away. So it’s no wonder spring breakers have chosen to vacation in the state – with thousands heading to Galveston, an island off the southeast coast of Texas. Galveston chief tourism officer Michael Woody told KPRC-TV, Houston News station, that he expected the storm to continue. “There are more than 30 million people within a radius of 300 kilometers … and for many of them we have the nearest beach,” he said.
Dr Bhavna Lall, clinical assistant professor of adult medicine at the University of Houston and a Harvard University trained public health expert, says these trips are premature. “Gathering thousands of people on beaches if they are not vaccinated, if they do not wear masks, do not have social distance, is just going to spread,” Lall told Yahoo Life. “They’re going back to their cities, and they’re just going to spread it to other people who haven’t been vaccinated either. And the more this virus spreads, the more it changes, and the more we’re going to end up with variants of concern.”
Lall says that all three major COVID-19 variants – the British variant (B.1.1.7), the South African variant (B.1.351) and the Brazilian variant (P.1) – are currently distributed in Texas, which means it is not a safe place for people to visit. “We really risk it by not doing all these people who gather outside, and then going to restaurants and bars and not wearing masks and not taking social distance,” she says. “So we just have to hold on and just a few more months.”
Most universities cancel the spring break; one school pays students to avoid it
In the wake of a surge in COVID-19 last summer, caused mainly by young people, a report this week showed that 60 percent of colleges in the U.S. have chosen to cancel their spring vacations. Many offer creative solutions, such as ‘wellness days’ or a Friday of the week, all in the hope that students will stay in their condition and not travel elsewhere during the spring break.
One school has taken an even more aggressive approach to preventing students from traveling and giving them a reward for following the rules. Earlier this month, the University of California. Davis is offering $ 75 ‘awards’ to the first 500 students who have agreed not to travel during the university’s spring break, which is March 22-25. Dr. Daniel Bachmann, physician for emergency medicine at Wexner Medical Center of Ohio State University and director of his emergency preparation program, is not against the idea.
“I think it’s definitely one step towards risk mitigation or avoiding increasingly positive cases,” Bachmann told Yahoo Life. He says he understands that the increase in vaccinations could possibly make people hope that the pandemic is almost over, but he says that there are still too many unknowns to abandon the precautions altogether. “I think the safest option is to still follow the same measures that we largely followed.”
Lall agrees. “We need to encourage young people to just act responsibly, just keep going for a few more months,” she says. “The end is in sight. We just have to take social distance and wear masks. We just have to wait.”
Miami Beach officers had to shoot ‘pepper balls’ to break up a crowd
Although Florida itself has no mandate across the country, Miami Dade-County has needed indoor masks since April 2020, sending the message that the country is taking the virus seriously. It’s a message that police officers increased over the weekend when they arrested 100 people, many of them springbreakers, for becoming ‘unstable’ in large groups. Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber told CNN that the events are worrying. “We have a problem with too many people coming here,” Gelber said. “We have a problem with too many people coming here to get away.”
Bachmann says while police may not be the ideal way to enforce these regulations, it is not a bad solution. “If you’re traveling somewhere, you should definitely know and understand what the local regulations are where you’re heading,” he says. “Yes, if you do not comply with local regulations, whether they are COVID-related or not, then it is reasonable for law enforcement to be involved … law enforcement is another way of providing public health or getting people involved. remember what the regulations are. ‘
In general, he says that those considering a spring break – whether in Miami or elsewhere – should think carefully about whether they can do it safely. “It comes down to risk mitigation and making decisions that will be safer from a COVID point of view – where you are going or how you are going, or the activities you are doing while you are there,” says Bachmann. “To choose things that are safer from a COVID point of view, because we are not completely out of the woods – although things are improving, we are certainly not out of the woods.”
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