Under 700: Well done folks!

Well Done Folks. We are holding our own. "Ontario is reporting a significant dip in the number of new COVID-19 cases after six days of infection numbers over the 700 mark." Percent positivity is also down to 2% Check out my favourite graph again: https://www.covid-19canada.com/graphs Find the blue line for Ontario in the new cases by date graph. Steady, steady, steady. How did we do this? The vast majority of us have hunkered down and followed the guidelines. We ARE WEARING MASKS. Sorry about that but no matter how viscous and hostile the anti-maskers are, by far most of us continue to wear masks. We are keeping our distance. We are avoiding indoor gatherings where following the guidelines is not possible. It's hard but we are doing it. Of the 658 new cases: Toronto 197 Peep 155 York R 94 Ottawa 66 That means that 512 of the 658 or 77 % are clustered if 4 areas of the province. These areas have been pushed back into a modified phase 2 lockdown with restaurants, bars and other food and drink establishments, including nightclubs and food courts in malls no longer being able to provide indoor dining services. Indoor gyms and fitness centres, yoga and dance studios, cinemas and gaming establishments are closed. I had a great restaurant experience yesterday. My husband and I cycle the Elora Cataract trail. We start in Orton and make our way to Fergus or the Forks of the Credit. If we head to Fergus, we cycle past Bellwood Lake. There is a quaint restaurant there called the Bellwood SuperSnax which we have avoided for the most part this season but yesterday may have been our last cycle until 2021 so we gave it a shot. Patrons were ushered into the restaurant one at a time, tables were distanced and separated by plexiglass, and the staff were diligent about making sure we had masks on if we left the table. COVID 19 is not being spread at this restaurant. Heres what happens if we keep following the guidelines: The numbers will continue to fall as we head towards Christmas and this second wave will be over leaving us less restricted and fearful at Christmas. Hospitals and ICU's will remain at a healthy, sustainable capacity leaving their doors wide open to the folks in our community who need them. The flu virus will not spread as widely as has been shown in countries in the Southern Hemisphere whose flu season recently ended. The masks reduce the transmission of other viruses keeping our communities healthier with respect to other illnesses than we were last year. The flu shot will help tremendously in this respect. Get one. The entire restaurant and hospitality industry will have a fighting chance to survive if they can keep their doors open. If there doors remain open, this important way of gathering with people in our bubble will remain available to us. We continue to keep the elderly vulnerable population safe in their homes, in long term care homes and retirement homes. And, most of all, people will stop dying or becoming gravely and chronically ill because of COVID 19. The numbers are down but the number of deaths, ICU admissions and hospitalizations continue climb. In Canada, twenty people are dying everyday of COVID 19. That is not nothing. Let's keep this up and get not jus the number of new cases down each day, but all of these other important numbers down too. Thanks for all of your COVID 19 questions. Save the date. November 2nd at 7 pm we will be holding our second webinar, Finding the COVID Balance Part 11 with a focus on maintaining our mental and emotional health this winter and what's new in COVID 19 testing, treatments and vaccines. Stay tuned. Anne-Marie Please share For non-Facebook users, you can find this post here: https://braceletofhope.blogspot.com/ Check out a great place for mental health support here: https://familyserviceguelph.on.ca/ For local assistance with anxiety and depression: www.here4help.ca CMHA WW Website: www.cmhaww.ca Here 24/7 at 1-844-HERE-247 or www.here247.ca. And for post-secondary students, Good2Talk https://good2talk.ca/